Will the Labour Government try to ban smacking?

The Westminster Government has said a smacking ban won’t be included in its Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which has its Second Reading next week.

This follows renewed calls from the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza to outlaw smacking “as a matter of urgency”, following the tragic death of 10-year-old Sara Sharif.

Sara experienced horrific abuse, but abuse is already illegal under existing laws.

Banning smacking, which would remove the ‘reasonable chastisement’ defence, would only serve to outlaw a gentle tap on the hand or a mild smack on the back of the legs. Anything which leaves more than a transitory reddening of the skin is already illegal in the UK. Be Reasonable’s Simon Calvert argued this last month on GB News.

However, activists are now said to be working with MPs to hijack the Bill with a smacking ban amendment.

And the Government has not ruled out bringing forward a ban of its own at a later date. In response to a parliamentary question a few weeks ago, junior minister Stephen Morgan said the Department for Education is “looking closely” at the smacking bans in Scotland and Wales, “but has no plans to legislate at this stage”.

It’s worth noting that in March 2022, the Prime Minister, then leader of the opposition, said the Welsh smacking ban was “welcome” and that he “would like to see the rest of the UK step into line”.

But interestingly, Labour’s Health Secretary Wes Streeting takes a different view.

He made clear when he was Shadow Health Secretary that he was cautious about introducing a smacking ban in England.

He told Times Radio in April 2022 that he had been smacked by his parents as a child, adding: “I don’t think my parents are bad or immoral parents for giving me the odd slap from time to time”.

And commenting on Scotland and Wales, he said: “smacking has been a traditional part of discipline in this country and given that different parts of the UK are now taking a different approach, let’s just reflect on how that’s working”.

The previous Conservative Government resisted a number of calls to axe the legal defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’, arguing that the current law “strikes the right balance” between protecting children, and maintaining the responsibility of parents to appropriately discipline their own children.

The last major change to smacking laws in England happened under Tony Blair’s Labour Government in 2004. Whilst an outright smacking ban was rejected, restrictions to the defence of ‘reasonable chastisement’ were implemented under the Children Act 2004.

Under the changes, any smack that causes more than a transitory reddening of the skin could result in prosecution.

With 47 Labour MPs rebelling and voting for a smacking ban, a Government review into the issue was promised. Conducted by the Children’s Minister at the time, Kevin Brennan, the review concluded that the current law should be retained.

In 2008, senior Labour MP Kevin Barron led another failed attempt to ban smacking in England by tabling an amendment to the Children and Young Persons Bill.

The Children’s Minister at the time, Beverley Hughes, said that whilst the Government did not condone or encourage smacking, it did not want to criminalise it.

She commented: “If we put a ban on smacking into legislation it would mean in practice that a mother who gives her child a mild smack on the hand when they refuse to put back sweets picked up at the supermarket checkout could end up facing criminal charges.”

Hughes speaks sense. The current law protects children from abuse, and gives parents the freedom to choose how they discipline their children without fear of prosecution. We hope Hughes’ new Labour counterparts share her wisdom.