Julian Brazier MP is introducing a Bill to make the British Board of Film Classification accountable to Parliament. He is evidently unaware that, under the Video Recordings Act 1984, the Board is already accountable to Parliament. If he looks in the House of Commons Library, he will find the Board's very detailed Annual Reports which have set out every year since 1985 the composition of the Board, its procedures, and a statement of accounts.
All key staff, including examiners, are named, and the wide-ranging backgrounds of examiners are regularly summarised. The present team includes three teachers, a journalist, a psychologist, a Parliamentary assistant, a social worker with NSPCC experience, two members of the probation service (one formerly in the RAF), a civil service technician, a marketing manager, and an oil-tanker driver. They are not, and never have been, appointed by the film industry.
The Board is wholly self-financing, through the fees it charges per measured running time of films and videos submitted. It has never, since its formation in 1912, received any subvention either from the film industry or from government.
The BBFC has always been at pains to avoid any conflict of interest, whether corporate or individual. Thus neither its examiners nor its principal officers are permitted to undertake any outside employment or to have any financial interest in the production, distribution or exhibition of films or videos.
As for the Board's decision to grant an '18' certificate to the film Crash, Mr Brazier has clearly not taken the trouble to see the film or to check his facts. The advice taken by the Board was carefully analysed, and the interpretation we applied was that of our legal adviser, in this case a Senior Treasury Counsel who has acted regularly for the Crown Prosecution Service since the early 'eighties.
The Board's openness and accountability has been marked by major presentations on standards to Home Office Committees and Home Affairs Select Committees, both at the Board and in the Houses of Parliament, and we have organised a great many presentations on standards for backbench MPs and Ministers of the Crown. We have also organised lengthy presentations for national film critics, as well as regular monthly seminars for students. Any MP is welcome to attend such briefing sessions, or to visit the Board, since first-hand knowledge is surely preferable to unsubstantiated rumours in the press.
James Ferman