Campaigners had been hoping a ban on smacking would be included in new children’s legislation but Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she has no plans to introduce it
A ban on parents smacking their kids will not be introduced in England despite mounting pressure to strengthen the law.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she does “not have any plans to legislate” against the physical punishment of kids despite smacking being outlawed in Scotland and Wales. Child punishment laws have come under intense scrutiny after the murder of Sara Sharif by her family.
Campaigners and charities had been hoping a ban on smacking would be included in the Children’s and Wellbeing Bill, which was introduced on Tuesday. Asked about the calls, Ms Philipson said: “The wider point in terms of reasonable chastisement, of course, we will always look at these areas, but we do not have any plans to legislate.”
She added that she will be looking at the results of Scotland and Wales’ legislation, saying: “We won’t be legislating at this moment. I will always keep under review the evidence as it emerges.”
In 2022 Keir Starmer said he wanted to see Wales’ smacking ban extended to the rest of the UK, describing the law as giving children “the protection that adults already have”. He continued: “I would like to see the rest of the UK step into line here, because I think, well, Welsh Labour have taken a lead here and they’re absolutely right to protect children in the way that they now have.”
Ten-year-old Sara’s death has raised questions over safeguards around home-schooling and concerns over children’s protection laws. Sara, whose battered body was discovered at her family home in Woking, Surrey, in August last year, had been pulled out of school by her family in the last months of her life, despite teachers having noticed marks on her face and referred her to social services.
Last week her father Urfan Sharif, 42, and stepmother Beinash Batool, 30, were found guilty of her murder and her uncle, Faisal Malik, 29, was convicted of causing or allowing her death by a jury. Sharif claimed in a call to police after fleeing England for Pakistan that he “did legally punish” his daughter and that he “beat her up too much”.
Ms Phillipson said the Sara Sharif case is “utterly unspeakable”. She said: “What we have seen and heard through the progress of the criminal trial is utterly unspeakable. The degree of violence that the poor young girl experienced is just absolutely sickening.” She added: “I am pleased that her murderers will today be facing justice in their sentencing.”
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She described her proposals on children’s safety as “landmark” legislation. Changes due to be introduced in the Bill include parents no longer having an automatic right to take their children out of school for home education if the young person is subject to a child protection investigation or under a child protection plan – meaning the child is suspected of being at risk of significant harm.
Other aspects will include new registers to identify children not in school, and a measure giving children a unique identifier number – akin to a national insurance number – in a bid to ensure issues can be tracked and shared across services “preventing children from falling through the cracks”.