Peers demand answers over “deeply flawed” Welsh Smacking Ban Review as costs tipped to Hit £18million

A group of cross-party Peers has issued a challenge to the Welsh Government over its “inevitably limited” review of the 2020 smacking ban.

The Members of the House of Lords warn of a “worrying increase” in social services referrals, a lack of evidence that the law has improved child safety and spiralling costs of introducing the ban.

In the letter to Dawn Bowden MS, Minister for Children and Social Care, the signatories Lord Jackson, Baroness Fox, Baroness Meyer, Lord McCrea and Lord Biggar — many of whom recently debated the issue in the House of Lords — expressed serious concerns that the Welsh Government’s three-year review of the Children (Abolition of Defence of Reasonable Punishment) (Wales) Act 2020 ignored critical data gaps and mounting costs.

Key concerns raised by the group include:
• Hidden costs: While the official review failed to assess the financial impact, the Be Reasonable campaign estimates the cost to the public purse could be as high as £18.3 million when adjusted for inflation.
• Social services under pressure: Official figures show a “worrying increase” in referrals and investigations since the Act’s inception. However, the Welsh Government has admitted its own data collection has been “poor,” leaving the true scale of the impact unknown.
• Workload crisis: Over 13% of surveyed organisations reported their workload has been “greatly affected” by the Act, with 75% seeing some impact, raising questions about what essential child protection work is being displaced.
• No proof of success: The Peers point out that the review contains no metrics demonstrating an improvement in child wellbeing or a reduction in physical abuse, despite the massive increase in reporting and bureaucracy.

The letter also highlights “temporary backlogs” mentioned in the review, questioning the risk posed to truly vulnerable children during these delays and asking whether the process of investigation itself is having “unintended consequences” for ordinary families.

The concerns expressed by the peers mirror criticism contained in a major review of the impact of the smacking ban from the campaign group Be Reasonable Wales, which opposed removing reasonable chastisement. The report found that despite repeated promises from Ministers, hundreds of parents had been criminalised since its introduction, while thousands of other parents could have had accusations that they had smacked their children recorded by the State under the DBS system, even if no formal action was taken by authorities, or no other evidence to support the allegation. This could potentially impact any parent who works with children or vulnerable adults, such as doctors and nurses.

James Kennedy, a spokesperson for the campaign group, commented: “The Welsh Government’s three-year review is a missed opportunity for transparency. We are seeing a significant rise in social services investigations and a mounting administrative burden on staff, yet there is zero evidence that children are actually safer.

“Taxpayers deserve to know if millions of pounds are being spent on a policy that creates backlogs for vulnerable children rather than protecting them. It is time for the Minister to provide a full and honest assessment of the outcomes—not just the output—of this legislation.”

The Peers and campaign group are now calling on the Minister to provide a detailed qualitative assessment of the impact on the families who have been reported to police and social services, a full assessment of costs across all government agencies and to confirm what steps are being taken to enhance data accuracy ahead of the five-year report.