A Bill making parents responsible for the actions of their children will be tabled in the House of Assembly within weeks, the Attorney General announced yesterday.

The Parental Responsibility Bill 2010, which was first proposed at the beginning of the year, will focus on crime and disorder and civil liability allowing someone to seek damages over an incident caused by a child.

Speaking in the Senate yesterday, Senator Kim Wilson said: "The Parental Responsibility Bill 2010, which will be tabled in the House of Assembly this term, is the result of a considered and collaborative approach, which is intended to ensure that parents uphold their responsibilities toward their minor children and that minors are equally held to account when they do not adhere to acceptable standards of social conduct.

"This in turn is anticipated to contribute to a host of other systemic measures to stem the current tide of youth delinquency and anti-social behaviour within Bermuda.

"I am sure we would all agree that the future of our society depends upon our children as well as our individual and collective success at raising them to be socially functional, law abiding, upstanding citizens.

"Unfortunately today we are witnessing a trend of social dysfunction and lawlessness that is unprecedented in Bermuda. Whereas the traditional systemic approach has been to let social forces play themselves out until or unless it is necessary for the criminal law to step in; the prevailing trend toward serious criminal conduct tells us that we can no longer afford the luxury of complacency."

Statistics show that there has been a huge increase in juveniles in the courts and that almost a fifth are repeat offenders. In addition more than a third of children up to the age of 18 seen by Child and Family services were classified as "out of parental control". (See separate panel.)

In developing the Bill, Sen. Wilson said the Ministry of Justice consulted groups including Child and Adolescent Services, Court Services and Child and Family Services, Focus Counselling Services, the Turning Point Substance Abuse Programme, the Mirrors Programme, the Co-Ed Correctional Facility, the Department of Public Prosecutions and Magistrates' Court.

Sen. Wilson said the Bill was similar to the Parental Responsibility Bill 1998 tabled by the UBP which did not come into effect due to a change of Government, but the focus now was more on steering parties onto a path that is socially sustainable.

Under the Bill, courts will have the benefit of objective evaluation of the social circumstances in any given situation, before ordering young people and their parents to stop from certain activities or to undertake certain actions. The Bill also has provision for making 'child safety orders' as well as 'parenting orders', although Sen. Wilson did not spell out how those would work yesterday.

"As such it shall be mandated that the necessary information is always obtained from the Director of Child and Family Services before such judicial orders are made," said Sen. Wilson.

"This Bill breaks with the unilateral hard line punitive approach to such matters. Whereas it does concede the need for deterrent penalty, more emphasis is now placed upon the possible option of social rehabilitation. Provisions are also made for counselling and for basing judicial decisions on reports about the social circumstances of the parties involved."

As well as dealing with criminal situations, the Bill also addresses civil liability to provide a remedy to people who "suffer loss, damage or destruction of property as a result of youth delinquency".

Sen. Wilson said: "It is important to emphasise that we are dealing in this instance with the 'wilful misconduct' by a child in circumstances that warrant judicial intervention. What better barometer can we use to spot troublesome youth delinquency and irresponsible parenting than when young people turn to acts of vandalism or other actions of disregard for the property of others?

"The intent here is not to penalise those parents whose children carry out such actions in spite of responsible parenting. Therefore, provisions are made for defences against parental liability such as 'exercising reasonable supervision' and 'making reasonable efforts to prevent or discourage' the delinquent actions which resulted in the loss."

She added: "The face of the accused in many of the recent instances of violent crime has revealed a disturbing trend the commission of such crime by young people who in some cases are still in their teen years.

"Furthermore, those who we would no longer classify as 'young' more often than not have a track record of dysfunctional behaviour going back to their formative years. The challenge therefore confronts us to address the root causes of this appalling trend at a crucial time in Bermuda as relates to the escalation of serious crime.

"Members of the public have consistently pointed to the abrogation of parental responsibility as one of these root causes. The Government has responded proactively and over the past year has undertaken to research the issue of parental responsibility with a view to ascertaining any link and to identify a solution which will address this increasing trend in a manner which is constructive and aimed at rehabilitating the family unit but is also as punitive as is warranted.

"The Parental Responsibility Bill 2010 is one of this government's ways of saying that more than ever before we collectively have to hold parents individually accountable to uphold standards conducive to raising children successfully.

"We are forced to literally lay down the law to say that at a minimum every parent in Bermuda is mandated to uphold their responsibility to society and their children in a way so as to protect their children from the kinds of behaviours that invariably lead to more serious consequences for not only those children, but also society as a whole.

"By this Bill we here in Bermuda are saying that parents have a duty to exercise care, supervision, protection and control over their children so as to prevent them from dysfunctional behaviour.

"It is being demanded that a certain level of social conduct should be inculcated within children and should that level be breached, those who breach them as well as those responsible will be held to account.

"We are saying unequivocally that when you fail to uphold those responsibilities to the detriment of others, something should be done to ensure that you do not continue in this vein. In a very real sense our children need to be protected from their own misconduct as well as from the kind of irresponsible parenting that contributes to such misconduct."

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