Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the effect of smacking as a form of punishment on children’s mental health.

The government does not wish to interfere in how loving families bring up their children. Legislation already exists to ban the beating of children by their parents; the defence of reasonable chastisement can only be used when a parent is accused of assault and not when the charge is actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm or child cruelty.

The government is aware of recent legislation in Scotland and plans for similar legislation in Wales. We have conducted no recent assessment of the merits of legislation to ban the physical punishment of children by their parents, nor have we gathered information about the public’s view of this issue or assessed the effect of smacking on children’s mental health. We have not collected data on the prevalence of smacking in Norfolk or the rest of England.