Under-16s face spot fines

Children as young as 10 could face on-the-spot fines for anti-social behaviour.

In a major extension of penalties proposed to deal with behaviour including throwing fireworks or making hoax 999 calls, the Government says it believes many of the problems are being caused by 10 to 16 year olds.

Tony Blair told the Commons yesterday that fixed-penalty fines for antisocial behaviour should be extended to the under-16s "as soon as possible".

After an announcement from the Home Office about the new range of fines on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said the Government would target children as young 10 after he was challenged at question time about the problems of anti-social behaviour.

Faced with calls for younger troublemakers to be punished in the same way, he said: "A lot of anti-social behaviour, I am sorry to say, is caused by youngsters under the age of 16. It is precisely for that reason that we have the power to extend fixed-penalty notices to them.

"We are looking at the timescale in which we can do it but I very much hope we can do it as soon as possible."