THREE-quarters of parents across Britain have admitted smacking their offspring, prompting renewed calls for England and Wales to follow Scotland’s example and introduce legislation to protect children.
The figure was revealed in a new poll, which also showed 29 per cent of parents regularly use smacking as a form of discipline.
The survey of more than 600 parents, carried out by YouGov for ITV1’s This Morning programme, found single parents wer
e less likely to hit their children than married couples. About 40 per cent of single parents said they had never smacked their children, compared with 18 per cent of married parents.
Last night, children’s groups including Barnardo’s and the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) called for England and Wales to follow Scotland’s example and change the law to give more protection to children.
Meanwhile, the SNP said the "commonsense approach" to legislation taken in Scotland was an example to the rest of the United Kingdom.
Pressure for new legislation south of the Border is being led by a group of more than 300 charities and voluntary groups, under the umbrella of the Children Are Unbeatable alliance.
It wants children to be given the same legal protection against being assaulted that is given to adults.
Under a Victorian judgment, it is legal to hit children if you can prove only "reasonable chastisement" was intended.
In 2001, Jacqui Smith, then a health minister, said the government had concluded that a ban on smacking in England and Wales would be neither workable nor acceptable to the vast majority of parents.
However, the Scottish Parliament pressed ahead with legislation. making it illegal to shake children, hit them on the head or beat them with an implement. Ministers in Scotland stopped short of an outright ban following a wave of public opposition.
Rachel Hodgkin, from the Children Are Unbeatable group, said: "The prevalence of smacking is no surprise, which is why we have always argued for a change in the law. Most parents don’t like it, but, while it is socially condoned, it will continue to be done. We are campaigning for a change in the law so that children have the same rights as everybody else."
An NSPCC spokeswoman said: "We know that the vast majority of parents do not like smacking and we believe that children should be offered equal protection from assault under law as adults are.
"We are calling for a free vote when the issue is debated in parliament this autumn. We also know most parents would support a change in the law.
"We know many parents are looking for alternative ways of disciplining children that does not involve smacking or hitting them."
Diane McNeish, from Barnardo’s, backed the call for a change in legislation and said smacking children only compounded the original problem.
"It tends to teach children that smacking is OK," she said. "Parents should be made aware of alternative approaches to smacking.
"The key is to spend time talking and listening to children. Problems could be avoided if parents had a bit more time."
An SNP spokesman said the decision in Scotland to reject unnecessarily restrictive legislation in favour of a commonsense approach was a victory for good parenting.
"This is an area in which the rest of the UK could learn a good lesson from the Scottish experience and develop policy that makes sense to the parents it is aimed at," he said.
The imposition of a total ban on smacking was dropped after MSPs on the justice 2 committee said they feared such legislation would be "unworkable".
"The majority of the committee concluded that there was no convincing evidence that the proposals here would reduce harm to children to such an extent as to justify a blanket provision of this kind," said a committee report.
The report reflected widespread concern by groups such as the Faculty of Advocates, which claimed that, rather than helping children, the ban could end up harming them.
Police also warned it could prove unenforceable.
