Smacking by Sunday school teachers to be outlawed

The British government has promised to make it illegal for private tutors and teachers in Sunday schools and madrasas to smack pupils after it was claimed that some were enacting biblical scenes of child punishment.

A legal loophole has meant that while teachers have been banned from administering corporal punishment in state schools since 1987, and in private schools since 1993, teachers in religious schools have been free to do so.



The law has permitted smacking in educational establishments that teach children for less than 12.5 hours a week. Teachers in these settings have the same status as someone who is standing in for a parent and can plead the defence of "reasonable punishment".

The government's chief adviser on children's safety, Sir Roger Singleton, recommended that the law be changed so that children are not allowed to be smacked by anyone outside their family.