when did they stop using the cane in england
School corporal punishment In state-run schools, and in private schools where at least part of the funding came from government, corporal punishment was outlawed by the British Parliament in 1986, following a 1982 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that such punishment could not be administered without parental consent, and that a child's "right to education" could not be infringed by suspending children who, with parental approval, refused to submit to corporal punishment[139][140]. In other private schools, it was banned in 1998 (England and Wales), 2000 (Scotland) and 2003 (Northern Ireland).[141] Schools had to keep a record of punishments inflicted,[142] and there are occasional press reports of examples of these "punishment books" having survived.[143][144]