“Any such amendment will require Executive agreement” says Justice Minister
The prospect of a smacking ban in Northern Ireland appears remote, after Justice Minister Naomi Long confirmed she was unable to “secure Executive agreement” at Stormont.
The Minister had been asked whether she will “bring proposals to ban the smacking of children” by the SDLP MLA Cara Hunter, in a written Assembly Question.
Naomi Long said that while she is “fully supportive” of a ban and had “already circulated a draft Executive paper” around a year ago, there was no agreement from the wider Stormont Executive.
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This comes after, in April last year, child health experts urged Northern Ireland authorities to clarify legal “grey areas” around smacking.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPH) said the current law in England and Northern Ireland has created “grey areas” which mean there is sometimes a defence to physical punishment.
Wales made any type of corporal punishment, including smacking, hitting, slapping and shaking, illegal in March 2022, while Scotland had already introduced a similar ban in November 2020.
The RCPCH said amendments to the Children Act 2004 for England and the Law Reform Order 2006 for Northern Ireland “to remove the ‘reasonable punishment’ defence from all UK law are long overdue”.
But that does not appear to be on the horizon in Northern Ireland, according to Naomi Long’s response.
She had been asked by SDLP MLA Cara Hunter, through Stormont’s written Assembly Question mechanism, “whether she will bring proposals to ban the smacking of children to the Executive during the 2022-2027 mandate”.
The Minister replied: “As you are aware I am fully supportive of removing the defence of reasonable chastisement from the law here. However, any such amendment will require Executive agreement and to this end I have already circulated a draft Executive paper in October 2024 seeking support for proposals to do so.
“Despite my efforts the position has not changed in that I have not been able to secure Executive agreement to deliver a change in the law in the current Justice Bill.”
She added: “However, I will continue to work with my ministerial colleagues to seek their support to repeal the defence of reasonable chastisement here and move towards a position of equal protection for children in Northern Ireland.”
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