Downing Street has rejected a call from a leading public health expert to consider lowering the age of consent for sex to 15.
Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, has called for a national debate, saying society sends “confused” signals about when sex is permitted.
But No 10 was swift to pour cold water on the idea. A spokesman said: “We reject the call to lower the age of consent. The current age is in place to protect children and there are no plans to change it.”
Prof Ashton’s intervention comes against a backdrop of official figures which suggest up to a third of teenagers have sex before the present age of consent of 16.
He told the Sunday Times that lowering the age by a year could “draw a line in the sand” against sex at 14 or younger.
It would also make it easier for 15-year-olds who are in sexual relationships to obtain contraception or sexual health advice from the NHS.
“My own view is there is an argument for reducing it to 15 but you cannot do it without the public supporting the idea, and we need to get a sense of public opinion about this,” he said.
The Faculty of Public Health, part of the Royal College of Physicians, gives advice to ministers and civil servants although it is independent of government.
David Tucker, head of policy at the NSPCC, said he would be happy to have a debate on the issue, but would want to see the evidence for Prof Ashton’s claims.
“Has there really been a significant change in the amount of young people having sex over the past 20 or 30 years? If it has changed, then is reducing the age of consent the most sensible way to deal with it?” he told the Sunday Times.
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said Prof Ashton had been right to identify the problem, but he did not believe lowering the age of consent was the solution.
“We have far too high levels of teenage pregnancy. I’m worried, like everybody’s worried, about the sexualisation of the culture and the information that so many young people are bombarded with at the moment. That’s why I do want see action,” he told BBC1’s The Andrew Marr Show.
A lawyer representing 72 of the victims of Jimmy Savile also warned against any move to lower the age of consent.
Liz Dux, who heads a specialist child abuse team at Slater & Gordon, said: “I have real concerns about the prospect of the age of consent being lowered.
“Predatory adults would be given legitimacy to focus their attentions on even younger teenagers and there is a real risk that society would be sending out the message that sex between 14-15-year-olds is also acceptable.”
Shadow public health minister Luciana Berger said Labour opposed lowering the age of consent and called for mandatory sex and relationship education. Ms Berger said the opposition had tried to get such changes enshrined in law but Tory MPs blocked the moves in Parliament.