§ Mr. Lawrenceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department when he will lay before Parliament his proposals for the designation of persons to act as the authority responsible for making arrangements for the classification of video works under the Video Recordings Act 1984; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. BrittanI have today laid before both Houses my proposals for the designation under section 4(1) of the Video Recordings Act 1984 of those persons who on designation will be the authority responsible for the matters set out in that section of the Act. I propose to designate the Earl of Harewood, the Lord Birkett, Miss Monica Sims and Mr. James Ferman, respectively the president, vice-presidents and director of the British Board of Film Classification (formerly the British Board of Film Censors). The board will be responsible for determining whether or not video works are suitable to be classified, having special regard to the likelihood of classified video works being viewed in the home, and for carrying out the other arrangements specified in section 4(1) of the Video Recordings Act.
I have placed in the Library the text of a letter I intend to send at the time of designation to each member of the authority. Attached to the letter are the Video Appeals Committee provisions containing the- arrangements for appeals, in accordance with section 4(3) of the Act, against determinations by the board, with which I am satisfied, and the tariff of fees which I have approved for the purposes of section 4(5) and (6) of the Act.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and I propose to bring the criminal provisions of the Act into force on 1 September 1985 in respect of all video works where a video recording containing the video work has not been sold, let on hire or offered for sale or hire in the United Kingdom to the public before that date.
We intend next to bring those provisions of the Act into force for remaining classes of works in a series of stages. This is to allow sufficient time for the-classification of existing video works to be undertaken before dealings in them become liable to the criminal sanctions for which the Act provides. Under this scheme, those video works which have caused most concern will be liable to be classified in the first stage. The stages referred to above are as follows:
1 September 1986:all existing works which are predominantly in English except those which are substantially the same as a moving picture produced on showing a film registered on or after 1 January 1940 under section 9 of the Films Act 1960 or previous comparable enactments.1 March 1987: all works predominantly in English except those which are substantially the same as a moving picture produced on showing a film registered between 1 January 1940 and 31 December 1979.382W1 September 1987: all works predominantly in English except those which are substantially the same as a moving picture produced on showing a film registered between 1 January 1940 and 31 December 1974.1 March 1988: all works predominantly in English except those which are substantially the same as a moving picture produced on showing a film registered between I January 1940 and 31 December 1969.1 September 1988: all remaining works, including foreign language works.I propose to lay before Parliament very shortly labelling regulations, under section 8 of the Act, to come into effect on 1 September 1985.