MPs propose to ban hitting children in England

23 January, 2025

Humanists UK welcomes a cross-party amendment to abolish hitting children tabled by Labour MP Jess Asato to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

This comes at a time when the NSPCC has recorded an over 300% increase in calls about physical violence against children. The amendment would abolish the   common law defence of ‘reasonable punishment’, used to justify violence against children, giving children equal protection to adults.

Humanists UK has long campaigned for this defence of corporal punishment against children to be removed. In recent years Wales Humanists supported the Welsh Government in changing the law, which happened in 2022. Scotland similarly outlawed all violence against children in 2020. A ban is also in place in the Republic of Ireland.

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child recognises that any physical punishment of children, however minor, is incompatible with their human rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), and has called for it to be abolished.

And last year, Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, called for a ban, arguing that ‘Children are more vulnerable than adults, so we need to ensure that they are protected, and their rights are supported.’

The amendment by Labour MP Jess Asato has gathered cross-party support including from the Liberal Democrat MP Manuela Perteghella and Green MP Ellie Chowns. 

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Kieran Aldred commented:

‘We welcome this amendment from cross-party MPs and urge the UK Government to take this opportunity to ban all forms of physical violence against children. Children in England should have their physical safety protected, as they do in Wales and Scotland. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Children’s Commissioner for England, and UK children’s charities all call for a ban. Children must have the same legal protections from violence that adults do.’

Notes

For further comment or information, media should contact Humanists UK Director of Public Affairs and Policy Richy Thompson at press@humanists.uk or phone 0203 675 0959.

Read Jess Asato’s amendment to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill – amendment NC10 on page 23.

Read our response to the Welsh Government consultation on the Bill.

Read the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

Read our response to the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill.

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