Submitted on Thursday 23rd April 2026
Rejected on Tuesday 19th May 2026
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: duplicate (see below for details)
Close legal gap allowing adults to have sex with 16–17-year-olds
Introduce legislation to close legal loopholes that allow adults to engage in sexual relationships with 16–17-year-olds. Close the legal gap allowing adults to have sex with 16–17-year-olds. 30 year olds should not legally be able to have sexual relationships with under 18s.
Although the age of consent is 16, current laws do not adequately protect young people from exploitation by significantly older adults. This gap can leave 16–17-year-olds vulnerable to grooming, coercion, and abuse. Close the gap by ensuring that it is a criminal offence if an adult aged 20 or over engages in sexual activity with a 16–17-year-old where there is a substantial age difference (for example, more than 4 years).
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The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
There's already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue.
You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition.
You may wish to sign the following petition, which calls for similar action:
Raise the age of consent to 18 with peer exception for 16-17 year olds
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/767458
216.73.216.246 Wed, 08 Jul 2026 03:32:48 +0100
