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

I hope to come on to that later. As the hon. Member for Canterbury knows, the Ministry of Justice has collected evidence from research that it has done. It might be appropriate for me to talk about it now, because it is about pornographic material and the link that that can have to behaviour. I do not think that the hon. Gentleman said this, so it might be worth putting it on the record: the piece of research done by the Ministry of Justice considered only extreme material. When it defined that material, it was talking about material that would never have gained classification under the current BBFC system—not even as an R18. As all hon. Members know, R18 material is available for sale only in licensed sex shops and is therefore subject to severe restriction. The research applies to material that would in no circumstances whatsoever have obtained any of those classifications. It is only when that extreme material was examined—material that is censored, to use the term of my hon. Friend the Member for Hendon (Mr. Dismore)—that the contention is supported that extreme pornographic material can have a harmful effect on those who access it. There is some element of consensus in the House, but we must be careful about the evidence when that element of consensus exists.