The offending by children aged under 10 in England and Wales included about 1,300 incidents of criminal damage and arson and more than 60 sex offences, according to figures obtained by the BBC under the Freedom of Information Act.

And their figures showed more of those recorded crimes were committed in West Yorkshire last year than anywhere outside London.

According to the figures, West Yorkshire Police dealt with 281 cases involving children under 10 – 10 per cent of the England and Wales total.

They included 128 incidents of criminal damage, 43 of wounding, 29 assaults and six sexual assaults on other children.

But the Government said last night it had no plans to change the age of criminal responsibility and a leading children's charity said the age should actually be increased to 14.

The figures were based on data from 32 of the 43 forces in England and Wales. Although children under 10 cannot be charged with an offence, the crime is still recorded by police.

Of the 2,840 crimes where the suspect was under 10, about half were cases of arson or criminal damage. There were also 66 sexual offences, including a number of sexual assaults on children under 13.

The figures also revealed children too young to be charged were suspected of harassment, wounding and burglary.

Ian Johnston, Association of Chief Police Officers lead on crime and Chief Constable of British Transport Police, said: "The law establishes that any offences committed by children under 10 are not crime. Many of these offences are minor acts of damage and by far the large majority of children under 10 would not feature in this data.

"In appropriate cases children can be dealt with effectively under arrangements of care proceedings."

Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children's Society, said the charity wanted the age of criminal responsibility raised to 14.

He said: "If you look at how children are treated by Government and legislation you have to be 18 to be able to vote, 16 to have sex and yet 10 to be held accountable for committing a crime."

The chief executive of crime reduction charity Nacro, Paul Cavadino, said: "Reducing the age of criminal responsibility would not help to reduce crimes committed by young children. The best approach to serious child offenders is to deal with them as children who need effective care measures.

"This country's age of criminal responsibility, at 10 years, is already unusually low by European standards. In Holland the age is 12. In France it is 13. In Germany, Austria and Italy it is 14. In Scandinavian countries it is 15. In Spain and Portugal it is 16.

"This does not mean other countries ignore crimes committed by younger children. Instead they deal with them in family proceedings courts which can impose compulsory supervision and care measures. This is a more sensible approach than processing children through the criminal justice system."

Youth Justice Minister David Hanson said: "There are no current plans to change the age of criminal responsibility. We will continue to identify children at a risk of offending by working with schools, police, health and social services.

"The Government has introduced a range of measures to allow us to intervene effectively at an early stage, to prevent further offending and to help children and young people, and their parents, to develop a sense of personal responsibility.

"These include child safety orders and parenting orders and parental compensation orders."