Obscenity and Film Censorship (Hansard, 13 December 1979)

§ 2. Mr. Michael McNair-Wilson
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement about the Williams committee report on obscenity and film censorship.

§ 17. Mrs. Renée Short
asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the report of the Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship chaired by Professor Bernard Williams.

§ The Secretary of State for the Home Department (Mr. William Whitelaw)
The Williams committee has put forward comprehensive proposals for the reform of the laws relating to obscenity and film censorship. The Government will wish to examine the proposals carefully and to take full account of parliamentary and public opinion.

§ Mr. McNair-Wilson
While welcoming my right hon. Friend's words, may I remind him that the committee has sat for two years and that there have been more than five Bills since 1959 on that subject? Since the committee admits that the law is in a mess, the nation requires an urgent answer from the Government to the recommendations that have received such widespread approval.

§ Mr. Whitelaw
My hon. Friend will be the first to appreciate that it is a question not only for the Government but for the House and for public opinion. The 1510 Government should not proceed without a wide measure of public agreement. That is why we wish to hear the views of the House and of people throughout the country. In the meantime, as my hon. Friend knows, a Private Members' Bill is going forward. There may be doubts about how successful that Bill will be, but if it has some success, and if the House feels that it should go forward, the Home Office will certainly not try to stop it.

§ Mrs. Short
As the right hon. Gentleman is aware, the Williams committee made certain relevant proposals to protect both adults and children from seeing hard porn and from being exploited by it. It also made proposals to put the blue-film clubs out of business, and that cannot be bad. Will the right hon. Gentleman assure the House that he will resist the hysterical comments that were made by some people who criticised the report even before it had been published and before they could possibly have read it?

§ Mr. Whitelaw
I noticed that some people made a number of comments about the report before they had read it, and after reading it some felt that they had to retract some of those comments. I fully appreciate that point, and we ought to consider very carefully what the Williams committee actually said, rather than what some people thought that it might have said.

§ Mr. George Cunningham
After Members have had time fully to study the Williams report, may we look forward to an occasion—perhaps early in the new year, and certainly before Easter—when there will be a debate in the House so that the Government can be told what the House thinks about the Williams report?

§ Mr. Whitelaw
I can only say that that must be a matter for my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House.

§ Mr. Sever
May I press the right hon. Gentleman to make representations to his right hon. Friend to bring this matter to the House for consideration? In the meantime, will he seek the views of local authorities, which at the end of the day have a difficult task to perform in relation to film censorship, and so on? Has he so far received representations on the matter from authorities?

§ Mr. Whitelaw
I cannot say offhand whether I have received any representations, but I can say that I shall wish to take all those that I do receive into careful account. As for a debate, I shall, of course, speak to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House. Such a debate would be very welcome, but there are many pressures on Parliament's time.

§ Mr. Maclennan
Does the Home Secretary realise that it would be unfortunate if he and the Government were to delay consideration of this matter during the passage of Private Members' legislation through the House, particularly as we have gone beyond the stage at which the issue of principle can be considered? Will he therefore respond to the suggestion of my hon. Friend the Member for Islington, South and Fins bury (Mr. Cunningham) that the House should be given an opportunity to consider this issue before Easter?

§ Mr. Whitelaw
The hon. Gentleman seeks by a side wind to push me into saying something which he and I know I should not say. I shall add only that I shall speak to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the House.

§ Mr. Russell Kerr
Be bold.

§ Mr. Whitelaw
If the hon. Gentleman wishes me to be bold, he should remember that I was once Leader of the House, and I deeply resented those of my colleagues who were bold then. I had better not be bold now.