The Government has rejected the latest call to criminalise parents in England if they smack their children.
In the House of Commons’ Report Stage of the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, Jess Asato MP proposed to amend the Bill to “abolish the common law defence of reasonable punishment”. But, like her previous attempt to ban smacking, the amendment was not put to a vote.
In response, Education Minister Stephen Morgan emphasised that the Government currently has “no plans” to remove the legal defence of reasonable chastisement. Instead, he said it will review the impact of Scotland and Wales’ bans “before taking such a significant legislative step”.
‘Injustice’
Speaking on TalkTV, Be Reasonable spokesman Simon Calvert warned that changing the law would only divert police and social workers’ resources away from protecting abused children.
He emphasised that “the reality of what this would mean is I fear less help for children that need it”.
“Creating an injustice — prosecuting a mum for doing something completely harmless — does nothing whatsoever to help children in families where there is real abuse going on.”
Public opposition
Last year, a large survey revealed that the majority of British adults do not think parents should be criminalised for smacking their children.
In a poll of almost 4,000 adults in Great Britain conducted by YouGov, 60 per cent said parents ‘probably should not’ or ‘definitely should not’ be criminalised if they choose to smack their children. Only 30 per cent said they should, while the remainder responded ‘don’t know’.
The areas where support for a smacking ban was highest were in Wales (41 per cent in favour) and Scotland (38 per cent in favour). However, while those countries implemented bans in 2022 and 2020 respectively, over half of the adults surveyed in each nation remained opposed to criminalising parents.
Children’s Commissioner: ‘Axe legal defence of reasonable chastisement’