Welsh assembly to debate the bill to ban smacking

The Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill will be debated in the Senedd for the first time since its introduction in March.

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The deputy minister for health and social services, Julie Morgan, will tell assembly members that smacking a child must be stopped.

The Bill builds on the Welsh Government’s commitment to children’s rights under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

If it is passed by the National Assembly for Wales, the Bill will mean that parents and other adults acting in a parental capacity will no longer be able to physically punish children.

It will give children the same protection from physical punishment as adults. The common law defence of reasonable punishment will be abolished so that any adult acting in a parental capacity cannot use it as a defence if accused of assault or battery against a child.

The debate is the final part of the stage one process, which has heard evidence from a variety of organisations and representatives including the police, local authorities, children’s services and health services, all of whom have backed the bill.

It has also received support from a number of children’s charities including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s Cymru, Save the Children, Action for Children and Children in Wales. The children’s commissioner for Wales also welcomed its introduction.

Ms Morgan said, ‘There is no reason to ever hit a child.

‘As part of the discussion people have justified smacking because they were hit as a child. But what may have been deemed as appropriate in the past is no longer acceptable. Our children deserve to be treated with the same respect and dignity as adults. As a Government we want to give children in Wales the same level of protection from physical punishment as adults.

‘Now is the time for Wales to join more than 55 other nations across the world who have taken steps to end the physical punishment of children. Now is the time to bring clarity for parents, professionals and children that physically punishing a child is not acceptable in Wales.’