THE GOVERNMENT is proposing to outlaw the use by parents of the slipper, belt or cane to beat children.
A consultation paper from the Department of Health recommending a ban on the use of any implement to hit a child, in or outside the home, follows a ruling by he European Court of Human Rights that a father who “repeatedly and severely” beat his son was guilty of assault.
The National Children’s Bureau said it was disappointed with the paper and called on the Government to ban corporal punishment wholesale.