British Board of Film Classification (Accountability to Parliament and Appeals) Bill

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Of course, local authorities do sometimes make a stand. In the field of rap music, which is unregulated, Brighton has just said that it will close down licensed premises that use such music that features incitement to violence. As my hon. Friend points out, a local authority standing alone is of limited value, for exactly the reasons he sets out. We have to go back to the sources, and the BBFC is what we have at the moment. I turn to one more example, from a quarter that might surprise some Members of the House. Boyz magazine has given me the following quote and asked me to use it:"““As the leading and longest-standing gay weekly magazine, Boyz has taken a stance against bareback videos””—" that is, sex scenes showing males operating without condoms. It goes on to say that"““we reported last October that three young models, aged 18, 21 and 26, contracted HIV on a British bareback video shoot””—" three young men now facing effectively a sentence of death. The quote continues:"““It is disturbing that the film was released despite the fact that…at least one of the models was very strongly opposed to the film being released…Boyz magazine is in favour of gay adult material being available to our readers, of course, but we do not support the promotion of films featuring unsafe sex. The BBFC is effectively certifying films which eroticise and promote unsafe sex amongst gay men.””" I shall not conceal from the House the fact that I have some disagreements with Boyz magazine in some areas, but I am extremely grateful that it has come out strongly behind my Bill. It is remarkable that a number of the BBFC's former leading lights have condemned the institution's current attitude. Speaking to the Daily Mail, former BBFC chairman Andreas Whittam Smith said that he believed that it had been taking a more relaxed approach to violence. He was, of course, overturned by the wretched video appeals committee when he tried to take a stance on violence as chairman. Referring to a recently released film, ““Eastern Promises””, Mr. Whittam Smith said:"““If I thought this was the type of film that was likely to make people leave the cinema, or even make them have to look away for quite a while, then I would question why the scene should be left in.””" Michael Bor, the former principal examiner of the BBFC, came to see me. He said:"““Nobody familiar with the media business could deny that there has been a liberalisation of attitudes to violence…We have to be much more sophisticated in recognising that young people are being desensitised by growing exposure to violence in the media; violence is becoming normalised in their perceptions.””" It is not just the Ministry of Justice report that accepts the argument that violence and sexual material encourage violence against women. The Advertising Standards Authority launched a seminar last year under its chairman Lord Smith, the former Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on violent imagery in advertising. The ASA has an excellent record in that area, unlike the BBFC. For example, in 2005 it banned a Reebok advertisement on the grounds that it glamorised gun violence. A few years ago, Professor Andrew Sims, past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, commented that"““there is now vast anecdotal evidence associating the portrayal of violence with violent behaviour and more than one thousand papers linking violence in the media to actual behaviour””." Earlier I quoted Government research and referred to the Prime Minister's open door. Now let me refer to my right hon. Friend the Leader of the Opposition, who said last November that"““studies have shown that as many as one in two young men believe there are some circumstances when it's OK to force a woman to have sex. In my mind, this is an example of moral collapse.""We need widespread cultural change, and addressing this moral failure represents a real challenge to British society: to families, schools, local communities and businesses.””" He went on to say that"““the past decade or so has seen the growing sexualisation of our society, where sex is aimed at an ever younger audience and it's cool to treat women like sex objects...we need those that work in the media and music industry to exercise their responsibility in how they present female role models.””" The previous August he had remarked that"““the companies which make music videos, films and computer games have a social responsibility not to promote casual violence, the gang culture and the degradation of women””." My Bill aims to make the British Board of Film Classification accountable to Parliament and the public in a way that should encourage a return to more responsible decisions. Clause 1 gives a power of scrutiny over the appointment of the four principal officers of the BBFC to the Select Committee on Home Affairs, which is the Committee responsible for studying crime and violence. In each case, the BBFC would be required to submit a shortlist of three names to the Committee, allowing it to interview each person. The BBFC would then make the appointment, but the Committee, as well as the Secretary of State, would have a veto. Currently, the BBFC makes all its appointments internally. Under the Video Recordings Act 1984, the Home Secretary—now the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport—was given the power to designate the body with control over videos, so that the Government in effect have a veto over that key position.