Child Care Solicitors

The Children’s Commissioner for England Dr Maggie Atkinson has said that parents should be banned from smacking their children.

In an interview for The Independent, Dr Atkinson said that in her opinion current law offered more protection from violence to adults – and even pets – than children.

The law currently allows parents to smack their child lightly, but not so hard that it leaves a mark or a bruise. Dr Atkinson is proposing that parents who leave marks on their children after smacking them would face a criminal charge.

However, she has admitted the proposal is unlikely to be debated in the current Parliament, despite her strong views on what constitutes “reasonable chastisement”.

Dr Atkinson is a teacher who has two adult stepchildren and says she has never been in a situation where she has had to resort to corporal punishment.

“It's a moral issue,” said Dr Atkinson. “The morals are that – taken to its extreme – physical chastisement is actually physical abuse and I have never understood where you can draw the line between one and the other.

“Better that it were not permitted,” she added.

Parents giving or threatening children with “a clip round the ear” has been the bedrock of discipline for generations in some families.

New Labour changed the law on parents being allowed to smack their children in 2004, to bring UK legislation in line with other EU countries.

In some EU member states, corporal punishment in families or schools is banned completely.

In 2010, the UK government was criticised by the Council of Europe for not bringing in a total ban on smacking children.

Duncan Lewis Children’s Lawyers

Duncan Lewis is a leading firm of children’s law solicitors and can advise on a wide range of childcare matters, including:

• Child abuse
• Child contact and residence
• Children taken into Local Authority care
• Child abduction.

For expert legal advice on childcare law, contact Duncan Lewis children’s lawyers on 020 7923 4020.