Smacking: Scotland becomes first UK country to make smacking children illegal

Smacking children is now officially illegal in Scotland, making it the first part of the UK to ban the punishment.

The law was passed last year during a vote by Scottish MPs, but comes into effect on 7 November 2020.

Now, physical attacks, including smacking, on both adults and children (anyone over 16) will be treated as a criminal offence - assault.

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What was the rule before?

Before the new law was brought in, parents could use a defence called "reasonable chastisement" or "justifiable assault" when accused of smacking their children.

A judge would decide what that meant depending on each case but generally experts understood it as meaning that parents were allowed to smack their children on the body, but weren't allowed to hit them in the head or use an object to hit them with.

Now, any sort of smacking will be viewed as illegal.

All physical punishment in schools and other education settings is already completely banned.

What have people said?

John Finnie (pictured) was the MSP who won the backing of the Scottish government in his bid to change the law

John Finnie MSP, a former police officer, who came up with the law said that allowing smacking "sends a message to our children that hitting someone is a way of resolving a dispute, or if you don't like their behaviour" and he said the new law sends "a strong message that violence is never acceptable in any setting".

Scottish Children's Minister Maree Todd said: "This outdated defence has no place in a modern Scotland. It can never be reasonable to strike a child."

The head of the children's charity NSPCC supports the new law and says the rest of the UK should follow the same path saying it was a "common sense" move.

The charity's Joanna Barrett said: "This law sets out in clear terms that physical punishment should no longer be part of childhood in Scotland and it marks a momentous step in making it a country where children's rights are truly recognised, respected and fulfilled."

The Scottish Police Federation, Barnardo's Scotland, the Church and Society Council of the Church of Scotland also support a ban.

The Scottish Conservative Party voted against the ban. Those opposed to it say that a previous law already meant that anything more than 'mild punishment' - like smacking on the hand - was already illegal.

Critics of the law say it is too strict and could just get more parents in trouble for disciplining their children and won't do anything to help vulnerable children who are the victims of more serious abuse.

The campaign group Be Reasonable Scotland feel parents could get in trouble for "simply tapping their kids on the back of the hand or pulling them away from the side of the road."

Research examining the views of children on smacking has suggested that it hurts and upsets them, but does not always stop bad behaviour.

What is the law elsewhere?

Scotland is the 58th country to make smacking children illegal.

The change to the law will make it a criminal offence for parents to smack their child on the bottom

Sweden was the first country to do so, bringing in the law in 1979, while Ireland banned smacking in 2015.

In England, Northern Ireland and Wales, parents can face criminal charges if they hit a child so hard that it leaves a mark or causes bruising, swelling, cuts, grazes or scratches. Before today, parents and carers were allowed to use physical force to discipline children by using a defence called "reasonable chastisement" when accused of smacking their children.

A judge would decide what that meant depending on each case but generally experts understood it as meaning that parents were allowed to smack their children on the body, but weren't allowed to hit them in the head or use an object to hit them with.

However, Wales has now passed an outright ban of smacking that will remove the defence of "reasonable punishment" - that will come into affect in 2022.

How common is smacking?

In 2015, a group of Scottish children's charities did research that showed that the physical punishment of children was more common in the UK than in similar countries such as the US, Canada, Italy, Germany and Sweden.

They said that between 70% and 80% of parents in the UK had used physical punishment, with children aged between three and seven the most likely to be smacked.

The research also found that lots of parents didn't think smacking was actually a "good thing", but instead, the "only thing that will work".