Consultation on the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill
Tystiolaeth i’r Pwyllgor Plant, Pobl Ifanc ac Addysg ar gyfer craffu Cyfnod 1 Bil Plant (Diddymu Amddiffyniad Cosb Resymol) (Cymru) |
Evidence submitted to the Children, Young People and Education Committee for Stage 1 scrutiny of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill |
CADRP-235 |
CADRP-235 |
About you
Individual
— No
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
The Bill's proposals, if implemented, would be a State intrusion into parenting.
We are not talking about the physical abuse of children here. What is being criminalised here is
mild punishment, ideally used only as last resort, which large numbers of children (myself included)
have experienced in this and previous generations without any long-term physical or mental harm.
Further, how would the ban on smacking be enforced? By further demands on the time of our already overstyretched and underfunded police forces and/or social workers? Would the word of
a child reporting Daddy to the police because he'd had a smack on the bottom stand up in a court of law before a defence lawyer who is aware that a large majority of people surveyed believe this Bill to be at best misguided and at worst a wqeapon to criminalise parents>
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
I have heard that this Bill is to some extent a tidying-up process of the relevant legal statutes and that the defence of reasonable chastisement has only been used in a tiny number of cases in recent years. If this is so, there is little point in spending time and money on a point of law which has fallen, like so many others, into near disuse when there are matters far more worthy of the Assemnly's attention.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
No, if the Bill was to fall for lack of time or any other reason, it would not put children at greater risk.
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
As has already been pointed out by opponents of the Bill, much time and money could be wasted in dealing with false or malicious allegations ahainst parents
(we would be grateful if you could keep your answer to around 1000 words)
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