New legislation which would ban adults from being able to smack their children has been introduced in Wales.
The Welsh Government wants to remove the common law defence of reasonable punishment which is currently available to parental figures if accused of assault or battery against a child.
If passed the Children (Wales) Bill would act as the first divergence of core criminal law between Wales and England, where parents would still be able to legally physically punish a child as long as it is deemed ‘reasonable’.
The Government-led bill is being supported by a number of organisations including the NSPCC, Barnardo’s and Action for Children, and comes as a private members bill in Scotland is currently being considered by MSPs which would remove the defence of ‘justifiable assault’ in Scots law. Read more