AN SNP politician has launched a scathing attack on plans to ban smacking in Scotland as the proposals passed their first hurdle at Holyrood.
Richard Lyle said the move would hurt families, criminalise parents, add to the workloads of struggling police and could even be used as a weapon by warring parents in divorce cases.
His comments came as MSPs supported the general principles of the Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Bill by 80 votes to 29. If it passes two more stages it will remove the defence of “justifiable assault” in Scots law, which allows parents to use physical punishment on children.
Mr Lyle, who was one of two SNP MSPs to abstain, said: “This Bill raises the spectre of good parents being criminalised for using mild chastisement, and police and social workers having to waste time investigating decent families when they should be focusing all their attention on identifying child abuse.”
Speaking during a Holyrood debate, he said: “Supporters of this Bill claim the police will never prosecute these actions, but how can they be so sure?
“Under this legislation, smacking will be reported to the police. Police will have to record it as a crime, investigate it – they might arrest a mum or a dad, question them.
“It might mean you get a child on their own in a room and try and get a statement against the mum or the dad.
“The police and social services are going to be inundated with trivial reports under this legislation, and they have to treat them as seriously as they currently consider abuse.
“I’m sure that frontline professionals who are already under great pressure will not appreciate this additional workload, especially when resources are stretched already.
“I wonder how this legislation will be misused in domestic circumstances when relationships between parents break down.
“We might see dishonest parents accusing their spouses of smacking in order to prevent access to children. It happens and don’t think it won’t happen, because it will happen.”
Mr Lyle said that during his 43 years in politics he had sometimes had to stick to his guns “even against the tide”.
Scottish Green MSP John Finnie, who is behind the new legislation, previously insisted it is a “positive and necessary step” and would bring Scotland into line with best practice from around the world.
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