Age fifteen
Can apply to the Navy at fifteen years and nine months.
Can see, purchase or rent a category 15 film.
Age sixteen
Can buy aerosol paint.
Can enter a bar on your own, but can only drink soft drinks; however, you can drink beer, cider or wine with a meal when accompanied by someone over eighteen.
Can join the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines with parental consent.
Can change your name by deed poll.
Can hold a licence to drive a moped.
Can leave school on the last Friday of June if you are sixteen by that date or turn sixteen during the summer holidays.
Can work full time if you have left school, but there are restrictions (
see page).
Are entitled to be paid the minimum wage for 16- and 17-year-olds.
Can buy a lottery ticket or use Category D gaming machines.
Can leave home without the consent of your parents.
Can marry with parental consent.
Can choose your own doctor and consent to medical, dental or surgical treatment.
Can open an Individual Savings Account (ISA).
Can consent to all sexual activity.
Can buy cigarettes.
Can get a National Insurance number.
Can apply for your own passport, with parental consent.
Age seventeen
Can donate blood without parental consent.
Can hold a licence to drive a car.
Age eighteen
Cannot be adopted.
Can buy alcohol and drink in a bar.
Can join the armed forces without parental consent.
Can own land, buy a home, hold a tenancy or apply for a mortgage.
Are entitled to receive the minimum wage for 18-year-olds.
Can see a category 18 film at the cinema or rent or buy one.
Can join the Fire Service.
Can buy fireworks.
Can enter or work in a betting shop.
Can apply to change sex.
Can leave home without parental consent.
Can get married without parental consent.
Can join the police.
Can vote in general and local elections.
Can be tattooed.
Can apply for a passport without parental consent.
Age twenty-one
Can adopt a child.
Can become an MP, local councillor or mayor.
Abortion
Can my daughter have a termination without my consent?
In the UK (although not in Northern Ireland) any girl can have a termination without telling her parents, as long as two doctors agree that she fully understands what is involved and that it is in her best interests. In a nutshell, doctors must agree that an abortion would cause less damage to a girl’s physical or mental health than continuing with the pregnancy. Most doctors feel that the distress of having to continue with an unwanted pregnancy is likely to be harmful to health.
All information, advice and services are confidential; however, if the doctors believe that she is at risk of harm in any way (as a result of sexual or emotional abuse, for example), they are obliged to involve social services – but not, interestingly, the girl’s parents. This applies until a girl reaches adulthood in the eyes of the law, which is currently eighteen years of age.
The implications of the government’s guidance in England mean that doctors and health practitioners are likely to be more concerned about young people
