HC Deb 23 February 1938 vol 332 c459
The Solicitor-General

I beg to move, in page 7, line 42, at the end, to insert: (4) For the purpose of determining whether any conditions imposed by Subsection (1) of this Section have been fulfilled as respects any exhibitors' quota year, a film which was first registered as a British film more than four years before the beginning of that year shall be disregarded unless, upon an application made not later than the end of that year by a renter having a right to distribute the film in Great Britain, the Board of Trade, after consulting the Cinematograph Films Council and considering its advice in the matter, direct that the film shall be taken into account for that purpose.

This Amendment gives effect to an undertaking in the Standing Committee that consideration would be given to the question of excluding from the films which may count for the exhibitors' quota, such British films as were registered more than four years before the beginning of any exhibitors' quota year. The Amendment also provides that such a film, despite its age, may, nevertheless, be counted for quota, if the Board of Trade, after consulting the Cinematograph Films Council, consider that this should be done (which means, in effect that the film has some outstanding quality). The Amendment provides that a four-year-old film shall be disregarded for exhibitors' quota purposes, i.e., it will not be necessary for an exhibitor who exhibits such a British film to exhibit British films which do count for quota against it.

Amendment agreed to.