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

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I have made my views on e-petitions known to his Committee, which, from what he has just said, I suspect might not be too different from his own. As I said at the start of my speech, I have a lot of sympathy for the objectives that the hon. Member for Canterbury is trying to achieve through his private Member's Bill. My concern is that the mechanism proposed will be unworkable and that it is not the right way to go. I was taken down the line of early-day motions by interventions and things grew from there, because the more one thinks about the mechanism, the more one sees how unworkable it is. We need to consider what happens under the existing arrangements. The BBFC bases its decisions on the law, taking into account a series of things that are set out in the guidelines. The starting point is, inevitably, the Obscene Publications Act 1959, which my hon. Friend the Member for Ealing, North quoted more or less accurately. Section 1(1) says:"““an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect or (where the article comprises two or more distinct items) the effect of any one of its items is, if taken as a whole, such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.””" Articles include"““any sound record, and any film or other record of a picture or pictures.””"