‘No plans’ to ban smacking children despite concerns over Sara Sharif case, education secretary says
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Despite Sir Keir Starmer in 2022 calling for a smacking ban in Wales to be extended throughout the UK, Bridget Phillipson said the government has ‘no plans to legislate’ to do so. The education secretary has said Labour will wait and see how a child smacking ban in Wales works before banning “reasonable chastisement” in England.
![[Keir Starmer in 2022 called for a smacking ban in Wales to cover the whole of the UK]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/17/08/f688090d9c1b462aa84c7cd66ebb6580.jpg)
Despite Sir Keir Starmer in 2022 calling for a smacking ban in Wales to be extended throughout the UK, and concerns raised in the wake of the Sara Sharif murder, Bridget Phillipson said the government has “no plans to legislate” to do so. But Ms Phillipson told Times Radio she will “always keep under review the evidence as it emerges”.
![[Sara Sharif, 10, was found dead in a house in Woking last August]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/05/13/SEI229493601.jpg)
As leader of the opposition, the PM said the ban on smacking children in Wales was “welcome” and that “I would like to see the rest of the UK step into line here”. “Welsh Labour have taken a lead here and they’re absolutely right to protect children in the way that they now have,” Sir Keir said.
He added: “What it does is give children the protection that adults already have, and that is the right thing.”. Asked why Labour in government was not now extending the ban, Ms Phillipson said: “What I want to understand is the impact and the effect of the legislation in Wales.
“They will be setting out the first round of a review into the implications and effect of the legislation that they had introduced. I would like to see that, would like to understand it, and to decide then whether it’s necessary to take further measures here in England.”.
