To ask the Minister of Justice what engagement her Department has had with children’s rights stakeholders, including the NSPCC and the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, regarding the defence of reasonable chastisement.

Both I and my Department have engaged and continue to engage with the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, the Children’s Law Centre and the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission regarding equal protection for children. These organisations have made representations that the current law is contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and Equal Protection rights for children. They continue to make the call for the defence of reasonable chastisement to be abolished, which I fully support.

I am happy to engage with other children’s rights stakeholders on this and other issues; however, to date, and despite best efforts, it has not been possible to secure Executive support for legislative change.