Schools Minister: ‘I wouldn’t support a ban on smacking’

Schools Minister Nick Gibb has said he does not want to see parents criminalised for smacking their children, amid calls to ban the practice in England.

A team of researchers from University College London claim that children who have been smacked are more likely to have behaviour problems than others. The new report examines previous studies, which often conflate “hitting” a child with a mild smack delivered by a loving parent.

Parents’ rights group Be Reasonable urged the Government to listen to the public, saying: “Parents who love their children should be trusted to decide when a smack on the bum is appropriate. Ordinary mums and dads are fed-up of so-called experts demonising their parenting.”

Criminalising parents

Speaking on LBC, the Schools Minister said: “I think these are matters for parents, I think reasonable chastisement is allowed within the law.”

He added it is “important” that “parents are able to bring up their children as they see fit”.

reasonable chastisement is allowed within the law

Polling for Be Reasonable Wales and Be Reasonable Scotland has consistently shown that around three-quarters of the public are against criminalising loving parents who chastise their children in a reasonable manner.

‘Out-of-touch’

A spokesman for the Be Reasonable campaign said: “You may or may not agree with smacking but should you criminalise parents who use it? Will it really improve children’s life chances for their parents to be convicted of child abuse merely for tapping them on the back of the hand?

“By all means debate which parenting techniques you think are better than others and offer us your advice. But don’t start criminalising those who take a different view from you.”

“The smacking bans in Wales and Scotland are highly controversial and we’re yet to see what happens when the new laws there are implemented. The bans were voted through by out-of-touch, virtue-signalling politicians, despite clear public opposition. In both cases around three-quarters of the population were against a ban.

‘Deeply repressive’

He continued: “The public don’t want to see ordinary parents arrested, prosecuted and convicted of child abuse for using a mild smack, because they know their own parents would have been arrested if this had been the law during their childhoods. These anti-smacking zealots can’t hide from the deeply repressive reality of what they are campaigning for.

“The Scottish Government even issued leaflets telling people that if they ‘see someone physically punishing their child’ they ‘should call 999 to report a crime in progress’. They also remind people they can ‘report crimes anonymously to Crimestoppers’.

“It’s chilling. And it will just waste time and resources that could be better spent identifying and protecting children who are being neglected or abused.”