As I said when we debated this Bill in September I am the Parent of 6, all now responsible and caring adults, a God Parent, Grandparent, Uncle and Great Uncle.
Three of my daughters are currently pregnant.
Two of these now live a few miles away in England told me that they are grateful this Bill will not apply to them. However, our other pregnant daughter, who still lives in Wales, is worried about the snoopers charter this Bill threatens to introduce.
In a nationwide poll in New Zealand, where smacking is already criminalised, 70% said that they would not report a parent that they saw smacking a child, but 20% would become informers.
The people behind this Bill appear to live in an unrepresentative “Cardiff Bay bubble”, where sitting in judgement on others and deciding what is good for them takes priority over listening to the people they are supposed to represent.
They claim to be protecting children and state that those who disagree with them need “Positive Parenting” courses.
However, the overwhelming majority of parents already know and apply the positive parent interventions they advocate, whilst also retaining light smacking in their Positive Parenting toolkit for rare use in times of danger or as a last resort.
As the Crown Prosecution Service, states, the defence of "reasonable chastisement” cannot be used 'for minor assaults committed by an adult upon a child that result in injuries such as grazes, scratches, abrasions, minor bruising, swelling, superficial cuts or a black eye”, where the appropriate charge will normally be Actual Bodily Harm.
The reasonable chastisement defence only remains available’, in cases where the injury is “transient and trifling”.
A recent survey of Welsh Local Councillors found that 7 in 10 are opposed to a smacking ban – including a majority from each of the main parties – and that 9 in 10 say that Councils do not have the resources to cope with one.
Concern has been raised that the Welsh Government has not given an assessment of the costs to social services of this Bill in terms of an uplift in referrals and an increased burden on social workers.
Speaking here on this Bill in September, I quoted
An experienced, senior officer with a Welsh police force, stated “I’m constrained from speaking out publicly, but I have to do something to try to discourage the Assembly from backing plans to outlaw smacking - The reasonable chastisement defence only covers the lightest sort of smacking. It stops parents being treated like criminals for no good reason. Removing the defence will remove any discretion we have. It will lead to decent families being traumatised”.
I stated in September that I had received extensive correspondence from constituents regarding this Bill, all of which had asked me to oppose it.
Four months later, I have not received a single request from any constituent to support this Bill, but I have received numerous emails from constituents asking me to support this Amendment 10, which would delay the smacking ban coming into force until the “UK Government, police, and Crown Prosecution Service have established a pathway (as an alternative to prosecution) for those affected by the changes to the law”.
This seeks to deliver a recommendation to this effect in The Children, Young People and Education Committee’s Stage 1 Report on the Bill”, which recognises that Policing and Justice in Wales are a non-devolved responsibility.
In order to represent my constituents, I will share some of their comments to me as follows:
“It is not having loving boundaries that contributes to damaged and disordered lives, disturbance and delinquency, but lack of them”
“We were both one of the 76% of adults living in Wales who voted in the 2017 ComRes Poll to oppose the criminalising of smacking. The Law already protects children from violence and this Bill will overwhelm the Police and Social Workers with a plethora of records whilst real cases of serious child abuse will be overlooked”.
“We trust that you will support Janet Finch Saunder’s Amendment which calls for an alternative to prosecution. Whilst we do not approve of thrashing a child when it misbehaves, a light smack is not harmful & should not be criminalised. We understand that children need to be protected from abuse but smacking is not abusive”.
“No one supports abuse of children but this law will be counterproductive . it is completely undemocratic as every opinion poll I’ve seen shows parents have rejected it. I urge you to consider what effect this will have on Police ,social services and court services . It could also lead to the unnecessary break up of loving families.”
“If passed in its current from, the proposed bill would have the effect of leaving loving parents open to be criminalised for a mild smack of their child, introducing unnecessary police investigations and child protection investigations by overstretched services for very trivial cases, and leave real cases of child abuse unaddressed”
“Please Mr. Isherwood would you support amendment 10 tabled by Janet Finch-Saunders to ensure that the smacking ban does not come into force as this ban would turn good parents into criminals. Please protect family freedoms”.
“This Bill constitutes an affront to every normal parent, as well as being an unwarranted intrusion into family life”.
“We, as recently retired GPs, are aware of the heavy workload which professionals, in both the social care and health care sectors, carry with regards to detecting risk and protecting children from real and significant abuse. We fear that the bill in its current form might result in the overwhelming of child protection services as resources are diverted away from the protection of children at real risk to the investigation and prosecution of responsible, loving parents”.
“I to ask you to please support Amendment 10.
I am deeply concerned that this could lead to the criminalising of
loving parents and cause the breakdown of families”.
Instead of criminalising millions of decent, loving parents who use a smack from time to time, we must recognise the clear difference between smacking and child abuse, which the vast majority of parents are well able to recognise. This debate is a distraction, when our full focus should be on the growing reports of the sexual abuse, exploitation and forced labour of children”.