Criminal Courts - jurisdiction

Jurisdiction	Children (10-14 years) Young persons (14-17 years [this means not yet had 18th birthday]*) All offences (other than homicide) Procedure not so formal A youth court must not take place in a court where other sittings have taken place, or will take place within one hour. Not open to the public and the press may not publish names. Unless charged with a serious offence and is unlawfully at large. Quorum = three magistrates, there must be at least one woman and one man in the quorum).
R (H) v Southampton Youth Court (2004) Admin Whole case here	In an effort to assist hard-pressed magistrates to determine where young persons should be tried without the need to trawl through the ever-growing list of authorities which touch on this point, the Administrative Court gave the following guidance: Under 18 years of age and in particular children of under 15 years of age should, wherever possible, be tried in the youth court. A trial in the Crown Court with the inevitably greater formality and greatly increased number of people involved (including a jury and the public) should be reserved for the most serious cases. Generally, first-time offenders aged 12 to 14 and all offenders under 12 should not be detained in custody. Those under 15 will rarely attract a period of detention and, even more rarely, those who are under 12.
R v Birmingham Youth Court Ex p. F (A Child). (1999) (QBD)	Youth court proceedings were a nullity where a bench consisting of two male magistrates failed to consider in open court the exercise of their discretion to try a juvenile defendant without the presence of a female magistrate, as required under the Youth Courts (Constitution) Rules 1954 (SI 1954 1711) r.12.
This can confuse; the police treat anyone who has not yet had his 17th birthday as a youth, the courts use the 18th birthday.