My Lords, I rise to move Amendment 54, which seeks to close a loophole in the law about corporal punishment in places of part-time education. In rejecting this amendment in Committee, my noble friend the Minister said, regarding physical punishment in madrassahs that,
“individuals have been charged, convicted and imprisoned for physically assaulting children in these settings. I therefore hope that this clarifies that the law already exists to protect children from violence in these settings”.—[Official Report, 18/11/13; col. GC 335.]
I am afraid this does not help, because the law does not protect children from frequent, painful or risky assaults in these settings and others. Teachers in part-time education, like parents, are entitled to use the defence of “reasonable punishment” under Section 58 of the Children Act 2004, for common assaults inflicted for the purpose of punishing misbehaviour. A common assault may not leave a bruise, but the definition does not include blows that risk injury—like a boxed ear—or cause a lot of pain, or humiliation, or that are inflicted multiple times.
My noble friend also said that the department was working with faith organisations,
“to develop a voluntary code of practice”,
but of course the difficulty about voluntary measures is that they are voluntary, not compulsory. As I said at the time, voluntary measures would not do for,
“the primary school round the corner”. —[Official Report, 18/11/13; cols. GC 335-37.]
The Department for Education celebrates excellent safeguarding measures in some areas but they are not universally applied. For example, in September 2012, after a madrassah teacher was convicted of child cruelty, the Lancashire chief prosecutor told the BBC:
“When we talk about three successful prosecutions in the last year in the North West and probably a dozen nationally, we’re talking about literally the tip of the iceberg. In order to meet the demand, schools are being set up left right and centre. There is no Ofsted, no inspection regime, they’re reliant entirely on a particular committee enforcing standards, ensuring discipline is correctly maintained. And if they are not up to the job, there’s nothing to prevent children being harmed pretty much on a daily basis”.
The Muslim Institute estimates there are upwards of 5,000 madrassahs in this country, and we do not know how many Sunday schools may operate the same sort of abuses. The department cannot seriously suggest that the voluntary code will be adopted and followed by all of them. I am pleased to say that my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has publicly stated he does not support the use of physical punishment. So it is incomprehensible to me why these
part-time schools, the most unmonitored and uninspected, are exempted from an otherwise universal ban on an unacceptable practice.
There has been a suggestion that prohibiting physical punishment in madrassahs would “interfere with local discretion” or fetter child-protection professionals. Nothing could be further from the truth. A clear law would assist both those working in the schools and those responsible for child protection, bringing clarity to the situation that the chief prosecutor describes.
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Recently, the Government accepted that part-time settings are exempt. Here is an extract from the Government’s draft periodic report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, which is out for consultation:
“Corporal punishment
The UN Committee recommended that the State Party should: (a) prohibit all corporal punishment in the family across the UK; (b) ensure that corporal punishment is explicitly prohibited in schools and all other institutions and forms of alternative care”.
I will not deal at this point with corporal punishment in the home—that is a debate for another day—but the draft report goes on to say:
“Nearly all schools in England and Wales and all schools in Scotland are banned by law from using any form of corporal punishment. Northern Ireland has introduced legislation, under which the defence of reasonable chastisement will only be available in the lowest level of charge for common assault. A small number of unregistered independent settings, providing part-time education, are not covered by this ban, but the law already exists to protect children from violence in whatever setting it may occur. Physical punishment has also been banned in child minding, other early years provision, local authority foster care and children’s homes, either by statute or through codes of conduct”.
Here is a clear acceptance that there is a gap in the law, yet the Government suggest that,
“the law already exists to protect children from violence in whatever setting it may occur”.
If that law were adequate, why have successive Governments found it necessary explicitly to ban corporal punishment in full-time schools, early years settings, children’s homes and foster care? The answer is that it is necessary for us to be quite explicit that corporal punishment must not be used in part-time settings too. That is what the amendment seeks to do. The fact that the Government refuse to implement a ban sends out a message that it is okay to beat children and put them in the hen position.
I also remind your Lordships, as I did in Committee, that in the Education and Skills Act 2008, Parliament has already expressed its view that this loophole should be closed, but the matter was never implemented. It is time that it was. I beg to move.
Lord Storey (LD): I want to say a few words in support of my noble friend Lady Walmsley and praise her for the huge amount of work that she has done on this issue. She has raised it on many occasions and feels, correctly, that it should not be ducked. I cannot understand why it would. I know that there is a fear from some quarters that this could be the thin end of the wedge and that we would then be telling adults and parents in their own homes that they should not be allowed to hit children, which I actually agree with, but this is not about that: it is about children in education settings. It cannot be right that children
in part-time education settings can be subject to corporal punishment. Before long, we can imagine an occasion—I hope it will not happen—where there is some sort of child abuse or protection issue. Everyone will be up in arms and questioning why on earth we allowed this to happen.
When we met people to talk about this issue, there did not seem to be a lack of willingness, but their answer was, “I cannot see how we are going to get it to work”. I cannot believe that with all our collective knowledge and skills we cannot find some way of ensuring that this dreadful practice is prohibited in this country. If other countries—perhaps more enlightened ones—are able to ban corporal punishment in part-time education establishments, why the heck cannot we in this country, which has a proud record of protection of children from abuses? I hope that the Government in their reply might come some way to agreeing that we will look again at this and if we can find a way of moving forward, we certainly will.