Parents will face prison for smacking

Smacking children with a cane, slipper or belt will become a criminal offence, with parents facing possible jail sentences under proposals being considered by the Government.

Smacking children with a cane, slipper or belt will become a criminal offence, with parents facing possible jail sentences under proposals being considered by the Government.

A consultation document to be published by the Department of Health today will propose that the law be amended to make it illegal for parents to hit their children with any implement or punish them in a way likely to injure the head, eyes or ears.

John Hutton, Social Services minister, said that the Government wanted to strengthen the law to protect children from being seriously hurt. "The risk in the scale of injuries will be significantly higher if parents use implements, which must be taken into account."

He said the Government accepted the need to change the law but did not want to outlaw smacking. "We do not want the criminal law looking into every nook and cranny of family life," said Mr Hutton, who has four children and said he had never smacked them. "There is a world of difference between a loving parent reprimanding a child with a light smack and beating a child. We are trying to put into the criminal law a protection for children from the unreasonable use of violence."

The Government is not proposing to set any age limit on smacking children. "We believe the punishment of babies is highly ineffective and dangerous but we are not setting rigid age limits of 18 months or two and a half years, because it will be up to the courts to make a judgment," he said.

Children's rights campaigners said the Government had not gone far enough in protecting them and had missed an opportunity to stop abuse. "The reality is a proposal like this will only confuse parents and is at risk of creating a lawyers' bonanza," said Paul Ennals of the National Children's Bureau, which has led the campaign to outlaw smacking.

"The Government is effectively telling parents how to smack their children safely, which is not a dignified position to be in. Smacking is the last century's crime perpetrated against children. It has no place in the 21st century."

The moves follow a unanimous ruling in the European Court of Human Rights in 1998 which said that British law on corporal punishment in the home was illegal. The law, dating back to 1860, allows "reasonable chastisement" by parents, but the European judges held that a nine-year-old boy who was beaten with a cane by his stepfather had his human rights violated. Since the ruling, an alliance of 200 campaigners has sought to give children the same protection as adults and ban smacking.

But research by the Office of National Statistics indicates that most parents in Britain want to retain the right to smack their children; 85 per cent of people think parents should be allowed by law to smack a naughty child who is over five years old, while 53 per cent believe parents should be able to smack those aged over two.

But findings do indicate some support for removing the right of parents to use an implement or to hit around the head. Only 2 per cent of the population thought that it was acceptable to hit a child around the head and 60 per cent believed that physical punishment should not leave a red mark.

Ministers are concerned that Britain complies with the European ruling but are equally worried about the Government being accused of interfering with the private decisions of parents.

The proposals to change the law will still leave Britain as one of the few countries in Europe to allow smacking. Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Austria and Cyprus have outlawed the striking of children. "Germany is about to follow suit," Mr Ennals said.

A source at the Health Department said: "The intention is to produce something that doesn't prevent parents from administering sensible, safe discipline but at the same time protects children from cruelty and abuse. It's all about safe smacking, if smacking is needed."