Poll shows that public are against ban on smacking

Published on Tuesday 13 April 2004 01:00

MOST British citizens don’t want a ban on smacking children, according to a new poll.

Nearly 60 per cent of those who took part in the survey said they would oppose making it illegal for parents to smack their children.

Just 35 per cent said they wanted the law changed with a further 7 per cent saying they did not know, according to the Populus poll for the Times.

Pressure for a change to the law in England and Wales has been led by a group of more than 300 charities and voluntary groups, called the Children Are Unbeatable Alliance.

They want children to be given the same legal protection against being assaulted that is given to adults. Under a Victorian judgment it is legal to hit children if you can prove only "reasonable chastisement" was intended.

In 2001 Jacqui Smith, then a health minister, said the government had concluded that a ban on smacking in England and Wales would neither be workable nor acceptable to the vast majority of parents.

The Scottish Parliament has voted to outlaw any shaking of children, hitting them on the head or beating them with an implement.

However, ministers in Scotland stopped short of an outright ban after a wave of public opposition.

In 2002 Jim Wallace, the former justice minister, said plans to ban hitting under threes were to be scrapped in the wake of a report by an influential back-bench committee which rejected the proposal.

MSPs on the justice 2 committee said they feared the legislation was "unworkable" adding: "The majority of the committee concluded that there was no convincing evidence that the proposals here would reduce harm to children to such an extent as to justify a blanket provision of this kind."

Mr Wallace’s own professional body, the Faculty of Advocates, joined the growing clamour of opposition, claiming that rather than help children, the ban could end up harming them. Police also warned it could prove un-enforceable.

The government said last year it would ban childminders from smacking children in their care.