Parents should not be criminalised for giving their children a light smack, a senior MP has stated.
Former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton, MP for East Worthing and Shoreham for almost 25 years, made his comments after smacking was banned in Wales earlier this month, despite public opposition.
A poll in 2017 found 76 per cent of Welsh adults thought that parental smacking of children should not be a criminal offence.
Loving families
Loughton criticised the Welsh Government for “pandering to the lobby that thinks the state knows better than the parents about how best to bring up their children”.
“I don’t support criminalising parents for smacking their children and too often in the past it has been a knee-jerk response for those who think that there is a direct link with child cruelty, which there isn’t”.
The UK Government has previously stated that it has no plans to remove the legal defence of reasonable chastisement in England.
In 2020, Education Minister Michelle Donelan MP wrote: “The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents”.
Criminal record
In Wales, parents who give their child a mild smack now risk arrest and a criminal record under the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020.
Welsh Government advice on the legislation tells police officers: “physically punishing a child will be breaking the law and perpetrators could be charged with common assault, and/or other offences”.
A financial assessment estimates that the controversial scheme will cost between £6.1 million and £7.8 million to implement and run over a five-year period.
