Dame Rachel de Souza said she was supportive of changing the law and was “against violence of any kind against children”.

“Because children are more vulnerable than adults, I think we do need to ensure that their rights are supported,” she told Times Radio.

Smacking was banned in Scotland in 2020 and was followed in Wales last month, prompting renewed calls for the UK government to outlaw the practice in England and Northern Ireland.

In both jurisdictions, parents enjoy a legal defence for smacking their children if doing so constitutes “reasonable punishment”.

Ms De Souza said: “Scotland and Wales have done this [banned the physical punishment of children]. So we’ve learnt a lot about what that would mean, as it goes into legislation.

“I think we’ve got a great opportunity to look, watch it, as it’s embedded [in Wales], and I would be supportive — certainly, from what I’ve seen so far — I would be supportive if our government decided to do the same.”

A government source said the issue was “polarising” but added that there were no plans to change the law in England. “Most people would say a light smack on the arm from a parent to a child isn’t child abuse,” the source said.

“We trust parents to discipline their children, when necessary, in the way they think is right. We’ve purposely not interfered in that too much. Child abuse is an entirely separate matter.”