Can I thank the Minister for bringing forward this important debate and also put on record my thanks to the children's commissioner, Sally Holland, and her team for the excellent work that they do on behalf of children and young people here in Wales? I think it's a sad fact that, in 2018, many children and young people in our country don't enjoy the same safety and privileges that we in this Chamber were blessed to be growing up with. So, I welcome some of the key recommendations in Sally Holland's report, which of course were aimed at getting vulnerable young people and children access to the help and support that they need.

I did note the references that the commissioner made to the work of the Children, Young People and Education Committee on mental health, and I think it is important that we ensure that there is access, as Suzy Davies has quite rightly said, to ensure that people can get access to those services in a very timely manner. And I picked up of course on her references to bullying also and the need to ensure that that is tackled, quite rightly as has already been discussed this afternoon.

But, Presiding Officer, we've got much to do for our children and young people. The youngsters of today are the Assembly Members of tomorrow, and we must ask ourselves what legacy we are leaving to them. Will they be looking back in gratitude when they sit in this Chamber in the future or will they be wishing that we had done more? A key part of our advocacy will be making the right policy decisions. When there is so much to do it's vital that we do the right thing for our children and young people, and I have to say that one thing I'm disappointed about in the commissioner's report is the recommendation to remove the defence of reasonable chastisement. It seems to me to be the wrong course of action when you consider the actual harms that children are indeed facing. The report states that children in Wales do not have equal protection from assault in law compared to adults, but, of course, that is misleading and inaccurate. The law clearly protects young children and all children, indeed, from violence, but it also recognises that light physical discipline, such as a smack on the hand or the backside, should not be a criminal offence. And removing the defence of reasonable chastisement, I think, will destroy this distinction and leave many loving parents across Wales who smack their children at risk of arrest, conviction and even prosecution.

The report goes on to say, of course, that the Government has an obligation to take action where there's a potential risk of harm to children in Wales, and I agree with that absolutely. But there are people out there who do abuse children, and we should be empowering social services and the police to track them down and bring them to justice, not wasting the time of the police and social services by sending them after ordinary, hard-working mums and dads who choose to occasionally smack their children as a form of discipline. The evidence does not show that light smacking does any harm to children. The Government consultation on abolishing reasonable chastisement admits this. In fact, it stated, and I quote:

'there is unlikely to be any research evidence which specifically shows the effects of a light and infrequent smack as being harmful to children.'

And I would urge all of the Assembly Members present in this Chamber to read the work of Professor Robert Larzelere, one of the leading academics in this area of child discipline. His evidence to the Government's consultation on this matter is very compelling. So, will the Government also commit to following that evidence on this matter, rather than trying to take up what they believe is a fashionable thing? And I have to contend that it's not particularly fashionable either. We know that the results of a Welsh poll back in 2017 concluded that 76 per cent of the Welsh public don't think that smacking should be a criminal offence; 77 per cent are concerned that a smacking ban may well flood the police and social workers with trivial cases and make it more difficult for them to target their resources, their limited resources, to stop serious child abusers; and 77 per cent of the Welsh public also think that it should be the role of parents and guardians, not the state, to decide whether to smack their children.

So, I think it is absolutely vital that we do what we can to improve the lot of children and young people here in Wales and that we pursue measures that will genuinely help children, but this particular proposal, in terms of a smacking ban, is not the right way forward, and I would urge the Minister in his response to consider the weight of evidence, which is absolutely against the Government's plans.