「子ども放置禁止」条例、正式撤回　自民県議団が手続き―埼玉県議会

　埼玉県議会は１３日の本会議で、子どもを自宅などに放置することを虐待と定める条例改正案を正式に取り下げる手続きを行った。自民党県議団が撤回請求を提出し、承認された。条例案は６日に委員会を通過し、本会議での成立が見込まれていたが、「対応できない家庭が多い」など批判が相次ぎ、県議団が取り下げを表明していた。
　本会議に先立つ議会運営委員会では、自民県議団が「条例が運用されるに当たっては、趣旨が十分に理解され、広く社会に受け入れられた上で、社会全体として子どもの安全を守る機運につながることが重要だ」と説明した。
　自民県議団が提出した県虐待禁止条例改正案は、小学３年生以下の子どもを自宅などに放置することを一律に禁止し、小学４～６年生は努力義務とする内容。罰則のない「理念条例」だが、子どもだけでの留守番や登下校、公園で遊ぶことなども放置と見なし、県民に通報義務を課していた。（2023/10/13-11:04）

The prefectural assembly of Saitama, north of Tokyo, on Friday took procedures to formally scrap a proposal to define leaving children alone at home or elsewhere as abuse.
   A motion to withdraw the proposal for revising a related prefectural ordinance was submitted to the day's plenary meeting of the assembly by a group of Liberal Democratic Party members, which had compiled the proposal. The motion was approved by the assembly.
   The proposal had called for uniformly prohibiting parents of elementary school third graders or younger children from leaving the kids alone in their homes or other places and for requiring parents of fourth to sixth graders to make efforts to avoid doing so. It did not include penalties.
   Under the proposal, letting children stay at home alone while the parents are away for shopping, for example, and having them go to and from school and play in parks and other places unattended were also regarded as abuse, and local residents finding such cases were obliged to report to authorities.
   After being passed by a committee of the assembly on Oct. 6, the proposal was expected to be approved by the full assembly at Friday's plenary meeting since the LDP occupies the majority.