The age of Consent in England & Wales

It is a criminal offence for someone of either sex to take part in sexual activity with someone under the age of 16, unless it is reasonable to believe that that person is 16 or older. Sexual activity includes sexual intercourse and intentional sexual touching. The penalties for an offence of this type are more severe if it is committed by someone who is 18 or over rather than someone who is under 18.

It is legal for two people of the opposite sex or the same sex to have a sexual relationship if you are both 16 or over and you both consent to the sexual activity.

Where both people are under 16, each will be committing an offence if they have a sexual relationship. However, it is unlikely that there will be any prosecution if both people agreed to have sex and one person was not taking advantage of the other. If someone under the age of 16 is sexually involved with someone else aged 16 or over, the younger person will not be committing an offence. However, the person over 16 could be charged.

The law is clear that anyone who has sex (or other sexual activity) with someone aged 12 or under will automatically be committing rape, sexual assault or causing sexual activity without consent. This is sometimes known as 'statutory rape', although this term does not exist in the UK legal system.