Lib Dems say hitting people wrong, regardless of age

Liberal Democrats will be the first of the "big three" political parties to support equal protection from assault for children, if a motion debated today is passed at their conference in Brighton.

The motion, co-sponsored by Baroness Walmsley and Paul Burstow MP, calls on the Government to scrap the 1860 law allowing "reasonable chastisement", which would give children the same protection from being hit as adults. It also calls for greater investment in public education and services for parents.

Liberal Democrat campaigners for law reform say this is an issue of equality, human rights and child protection - key pillars of modern liberalism. They argue that their party should lead on important matters of principle.

Shadow Minister for Children Paul Burstow MP said: "This debate goes to the heart of modern liberal values. It is a terrible indictment of our society that, though smaller and more vulnerable, children still have less protection under the law. We are not pleading a special case for children, just equality and the freedom to grow up without violence. Hitting children is wrong and the law should say so."

Campaigners point to Europe where ten countries, notably Germany and Sweden, already afford children equal protection from assault. In Sweden, the first country to take action, research shows that law reform has changed attitudes and behaviour without demonising parents (Durrant for Save the Children, 1999).

By contrast, research commissioned by the Department of Health in the 1990s shows that most UK children are hit and around a quarter are hit severely. Three quarters of children are smacked before their first birthday (Smith & Nobes, 1997).

Baroness Walmsley said: "The existence of so-called reasonable chastisement in law encourages the disturbing levels of physical punishment in our homes. Learning from Europe, we should scrap this archaic law to discourage hitting children and help us promote positive and more effective forms of discipline.

"The law educates and sets standards in all spheres of society, including how we behave in the home. In the twenty-first century, our children deserve far better than a law designed when we were still sending them up chimneys."

The Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance, which brings together more than 350 organisations to campaign for law reform, welcomed the Liberal Democrat move as a "major breakthrough". The Alliance is led by children's charities Save the Children, Barnardo's and the NSPCC.

NSPCC Head of Policy & Public Affairs Liz Atkins said: "We hope Liberal Democrats will lead the way and vote overwhelmingly to scrap 'reasonable chastisement'. The NSPCC has long campaigned for equal protection for children under the law on assault. This would be a great step forward in creating a culture of non-violence towards children."

A large number of leading Liberal Democrats support the Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance. These include Lord Dholakia, Baroness Ludford MEP, Jenny Tonge MP, Don Foster MP, Lord Lester, Lord Thomson, Mike Hancock MP, Sue Doughty MP, Baroness Linklater, Viscount Falkland, Paul Marsden MP, Patsy Calton MP, Baroness Thomas, Lord Razzall, Tom Brake MP and Bob Russell MP.

Lord Dholakia said: "Liberal Democrats should be working to give children the same protection from being hit as the rest of us enjoy. It is a matter of human rights and equality, and we must lead the way."

If successful, the Liberal Democrat move would add to the growing pressure for reform following the 1998 European Court of Human Rights judgment that UK law does not protect children adequately:

• Professional consensus

According to the Government's own statement "nearly all" health and social work experts favoured law reform in the Department of Health consultation on the issue in 2000.

• International obligations

The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended urgent action to change the law last year and the European Social Rights Committee, monitoring compliance with the European Social Charter, requires prohibition of all corporal punishment.

• Westminster support

In June this year, the Joint Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights and the Health Select Committee recommended scrapping "reasonable chastisement".

Public opinion, too, is shifting in favour of reform. Crude 'ban smacking' polls aside, the most recent survey by MORI for the NSPCC (February 2002) showed that nearly six in ten people support changing the law to protect children from being hit provided that parents are not prosecuted for minor incidents of physical punishment.

Ends.

For further information contact:

Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance, Tony Samphier on 07770 503610.

Notes to editors

Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance and Liberal Democrat spokespeople are available for interview.

The Children Are Unbeatable! Alliance brings together more than 350 organisations, including the Association of Directors of Social Services, the Royal College of Midwives, the Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, the National Childminding Association, the Children's Rights Alliance for England, the Parenting Education and Support Forum and the Methodist Church.