9. Debate on the General Principles of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Bill

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 7:53 pm on 17 September 2019.

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Photo of Julie Morgan Julie Morgan Labour 7:53, 17 September 2019

Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer, and thanks to everybody who contributed to this debate. I'm very grateful to the committee Chairs and the members of the committees who've spoken in the debate today, and I thank them again for their very detailed reports. I look forward to working with them as the Bill continues. Obviously, due to the time restrictions, I'm not going to be able to respond to the vast number of points that have been made today, but I do thank you for all your reasoned and thoughtful contributions. There is a division of opinion across the Chamber, but I do feel that we have been able to put forward our points, on the whole, in a civilised, considered way, and we've been able to discuss these issues in a constructive way, looking at where we move forward from this. 

As I say, I'm not going to be able to respond to individual points but I would be very happy to discuss those with individual Members. I'd like to finish by making some general points. A lot of points have been made about the criminalisation of parents, and I think it's very important for us to remember that we have support for this legislation from the police, from the police chief constables, from the police and crime commissioners, and we are working very closely with them to ensure that this legislation is satisfactory. I'd also like to reiterate, as it's been raised again in the debate today, that the police will only act in the interests of the public and in the interests of the child involved, and on evidence. And I think that all the evidence that we have from this legislation being brought in in other countries is that there is no great increase in prosecutions and parents are not drawn into the criminal justice system and, in fact, evidence that was given to the children and young persons' committee by the police said:

'we do a lot more of our work through voluntary attendance and interviews, and many of the cases we might imagine under this legislative change would probably fall into that.'

And that was one of the chief constables.