In response to a joint statement released by the four commissioners on Sunday (22 January), the DfES said parents should still be able to decide how they discipline their children.
A DfES spokesperson said, 'The Government does not advocate physical punishment as a means of disciplining children, but recognises that some parents may feel on some occasions that they do not have an alternative.
Within the boundaries set by the law on assault, this is a matter for individual parental responsibility. It is an insult to ordinary, decent parents to suggest that they cannot distinguish between smacking and criminal violence, or that one usually leads to the other.'
The 'reasonable chastisement' law, which came into force in January 2005, states that hitting a child is legal in England and Wales as long as it does not cause injury amounting to anything more than transient reddening of the skin. A similar law known as 'justifiable chastisement' applies in Scotland. In Northern Ireland the Government has indicated that it plans to bring the law into line with the rest of the UK.
The Welsh Assembly supports a ban on smacking but would have to wait for Westminster to pass an amendment to the Children Act before it became law.
The joint statement from the children's commissioners calls on the Government to allow a free vote in Parliament and introduce legislation that will ban the defence of 'reasonable chastisement' throughout the UK.
It says, 'We believe that condoning smacking gets in the way of progress.
It confuses parents, inhibits child protection and undermines the promotion of positive forms of discipline.'
Northern Ireland's commissioner, Nigel Williams, said, 'The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child clearly states in Article 19 that children should not be hurt.'