It was therefore decided to remove the sanction first in infant and early primary classes (where these children had seldom experienced the belt), working up to the later primary years and then on to the secondary sector. Different local authority areas phased out the use of the tawse at different times but there was a general move to ban the belt from Primary 1 classes from 1975 onwards followed by a rolling abolition programme through future years. In secondary schools the ban commenced from 1982 and was complete in all local authority schools by the autumn of 1987. A few private schools retained the use of the tawse until as late as 1999, but only with prior parental consent.