B

Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 June 2026

Debate

Children: Physical Punishment

Contribution

The law in this country gives the strong message that it is wrong to assault a child. The clear advice from government is that it is wrong to use physical punishment against a child. What is more, we are providing the support necessary to help parents to address that. We are investing in the capacity of social care to be able to identify where neglect and abuse has happened in families. We are investing in earlier intervention through the families first partnership programme. The question is whether the appropriate thing to do at this moment is to focus on changing the law. That is not our priority.

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