HL Deb 11 June 1985 vol 464 cc1222-4WA
Lord Nugent of Guildford

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When they will lay before Parliament their proposals for the designation of persons as the authority responsible for making arrangements for the classification of video recordings under the Video Recordings Act 1984.

Lord Glenarthur

My right honourable friend the Home Secretary has today laid before both Houses his 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. He proposes 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 two arrangements specified in Section 4(1) of the Video Recordings Act.

I have placed in the Library the text of a letter he intends 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 wth Section 4(3) of the Act, against determinations by the board, with which we are satisfied, and the tariff of fees which he has approved for the purposes of Section 4(5) and (6) of the Act.

My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Scotland and my right honourable friend the Home Secretary propose to bring the criminal provisions of the Act into force on 1st 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:

1st 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 1st January 1940 under Section 9 of the Films Act 1960 or previous comparable enactments.

1st 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 1st January 1940 and 31st December 1979.

1st 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 1st January 1940 and 31st December 1974.

1st 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 1st January 1940 and 31st December 1969.

1st September 1988: all remaining works, including foreign language works.

We propose to lay before Parliament very shortly labelling regulations, under Section 8 of the Act, to come into effect on 1st September 1985.