Mark Williams MP: The Child Maltreatment Bill

The criminal law on child neglect has not changed in eighty years; since before the Second World War. It is in fact based on the Poor Law Amendment Act 1868, following a case involving two Peculiar People (a sect of Methodism), who believed so fervently in the power of prayer and anointing that they refused medical assistance to their child, who subsequently died. As a result, the 1868 Act stated that ‘wilful neglect’ was a criminal offence if the health of the child was or was likely to be ‘seriously injured’. The 1868 Act’s replacement in 1933 refers to the same requirement for neglect to be ‘wilful’, and for the child to be subjected to ‘unnecessary suffering’, and this only on a physical level, in order for that neglect to be criminal.

In my view there is no ‘acceptable’ level of suffering for children, and yet our laws in the United Kingdom currently assume that there is. That needs to change - it cannot be the case that the ‘accidental’ neglect of children (that is to say there is nothing ‘wilful’ in the neglect) is not considered a criminal offence, and that no sanctions exist to tackle psychological and emotional child neglect – this is despite expert opinions suggesting that psychological neglect is the most destructive form of abuse.

I have encountered a number of harrowing tales since choosing to become involved in Action for Children’scampaign on Child Neglect. In one case, an individual child was openly told by his stepfather that he was hated; he was forced to go to bed before his siblings, at 6.30pm, and regularly wet his bed because his room was not lit, to the extent that maggots were found in the mattress. The child was persistently criticised, refused affection and told he wasn’t wanted; was socially isolated, prevented from playing with his siblings, and was used as a scapegoat for the family’s problems. Yet, this is not considered criminal neglect by our laws and the police are, as such, powerless to intervene. When the child was finally removed to live with his grandmother, the hatred passed on to one of his younger siblings, who was only removed two years later. This simply cannot be allowed to continue and for that reason I have chosen to support Action for Children’scampaign on this issue by proposing a Private Members Bill on the subject.

There are many worthy causes brought before Parliament, but surely the protection of some of the most vulnerable children in our society must be of the highest priority. The fact that the police are not allowed to intervene in cases of such obvious cruelty because of the narrow and dated definition of child neglect is unacceptable, and as such my bill will propose a wholesale redefinition of child maltreatment including emotional harm, to bring it into line with the definition of neglect in civil law.

Mark Williams is the Liberal Democrat MP for Ceredigion