Can I thank the Minister for her statement? I know that she's very sincere in her beliefs about the need for this particular ban, and she will understand that I have been opposing the smacking ban that the Government is proposing. I'm very concerned, obviously, about the potential criminalisation of many tens of thousands of decent, loving parents across Wales who use the occasional smack to discipline their children, and I do believe that the overwhelming majority of parents know where to draw the line between reasonable chastisement and child abuse. We've got comprehensive legislation that is already in place to deal with the abuse of children, and people quite rightly are prosecuted using the existing legislation, and they should face the consequences of the law in that regard. But I am concerned about the potential impact of this on parents, particularly given that your own explanatory memorandum draws out some of those potential impacts, in terms of them having a criminal record, this appearing on their Disclosure and Barring Service disclosure, and the impact that that then has on their employment—prohibiting them from certain roles and jobs, and the restrictions that it might place on them being able to travel overseas to certain countries. And I know that you've said that it's not your intention to criminalise parents—I understand that that's not your intention—your intention is to promote positive patenting. But the reality is that that is what will actually happen—that anybody who smacks a child after this law is changed will be regarded as a criminal. So, I am very concerned about that and I wonder what you're going to do to ensure that the application of this law, should it become law, is absolutely proportionate and supportive of parents, and not something that is going to be malicious as far as they are concerned, in terms of hunting them down, as it were.

I am also a little bit concerned about how this will be enforced. You've already referred to, in some of the other questions, how the law will apply across Wales. Obviously, it's important that we have a promotion campaign about any change in the law, should a change come, within Wales, but we obviously have a lot of visitors, from England in particular—day-trippers et cetera—and I wonder how we're going to communicate with them about a change in the law so that they're not unwittingly breaking the law when they arrive and cross the border into Wales if they give their child a smack as a form of discipline.

I heard what you said about the promotional activity that you're going to do, and it clearly states that you've set a budget aside for that promotional activity, in terms of educating people about a change in the law, in the explanatory memorandum that was published yesterday. But there's no additional finance available in accordance with that memorandum for more positive parenting courses in order to increase the capacity of those courses. That concerns me, because I would expect there to be a significant increase in demand from parents who may well want to have the opportunity to learn other parenting techniques. But unless you're actually prepared to put some money on the table to expand the provision that we currently have in Wales, which the overwhelming majority of parents don't participate in at present, I think we're never going to achieve the sort of change that you and I want to see in terms of the availability of the promotion of positive parenting. I'm absolutely with you on the need to promote alternative parenting styles, but unless you increase the resource, unless you increase the capacity of those people who are already putting on these sorts of services, we're never actually going to fulfil the sort of ambition that you want to see in terms of a change in behaviour across Wales.

I do know that there's a mapping exercise, as I understand it, which is under way by the Welsh Government, looking at the different places where positive parenting is being done, and I wonder whether you could give us some information about when you expect that mapping exercise to be completed. You've referred to the fact that positive parenting courses at the moment are universal in terms of the offer, but I don't think they're universally being promoted amongst patents. People expect to go to an antenatal class, for example, if they're having their first child, but they don't seem to be offered in the same way access to a positive parenting course. And I do think that we ought to get smart about offering these sorts of things in the future in order that we can equip people with everything they need.