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Children, Schools and Families Bill

My Lords, in many ways I agree with my noble friend. I want to be clear that the Government do not condone smacking. I think that most parents who have smacked a child in anger find that a very unsatisfactory situation for parent and child. We want to embrace Sir Roger’s second recommendation that we continue to promote positive parenting, as we have done. We know that over the years parents have become less likely to engage in smacking or the physical punishment of children, so there is a trend in this country. However, it is absolutely right that any change to the law should be very carefully thought through. There is a fundamental problem with the amendment, which is that the concept of parental responsibility is limited only to a very few members of a child’s family. I know that the noble Baroness is aware of this. It is limited to a few members of a child’s family who may be playing a significant role in its upbringing, but people such as grandparents and step-parents, who have not specifically entered into parental responsibility agreements—aunts, et cetera—will usually not have parental responsibility for a child and therefore would not be able to rely on the defence of reasonable punishment. This means that within families there will be an inconsistency with regard to which carers have responsibility for potential legal protection of the defence.