Seventy per cent of babies are smacked before their first birthday; you are more likely to be murdered before your first birthday than at any other time; more than a quarter of all rape victims are children; one child in five has an identifiable mental health problem.

Why don't children have a commissioner looking after their needs to stop such needless cruelty?

Other groups in society - women, ethnic minorities, disabled people - have commissioners, so why not children? There are 13 million young people in Britain and no single body represents their needs and interests.

The National Assembly for Wales has created its own Children's Commissioner post, but the Government has rejected calls for a similar post for 11 million children in England.

Instead they are to have a Children's Rights Director whose powers only extend to the 200,000 children living in care - despite the fact that recent research has shown that most abuse happens within the family.

This angers me, particularly in the light of Sarah Payne's death and many others like her. Many European countries have watchdogs and 85 per cent of the public agreed in a recent poll that Britain should have an independent office for children just like our European neighbours. Only the Government is not convinced of this need. They are losing sight of something vitally important: children are our future and if we ignore their basic human rights today, they will not value the welfare of others tomorrow. Children must be the Government's top priority.

V Groom-White,

Station Road,

Upper Poppleton,

York.