Video Recordings Act 2010

Lord Renton of Mount Harry Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Rawlings]

The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, has been involved with this matter for quite a long time and participated in the Digital Economy Act. It is important to note that any video that benefits from an exemption, whether it is music, sport, religious or a documentary, loses the exemption if it contains material that is sexual, grossly violent or criminal.

[Lord Renton of Mount Harry]

My Lords, will the internet be fully covered in these important consultations?

[Baroness Rawlings]

My noble friend Lord Renton raises a good point. The internet is not covered in the Video Recordings Act, which applies only to physical copies of video material available to buy or rent. The Video Recordings Act dates from the early 1980s, before the possibility of the internet as we know it now was even considered. I remember it well because I was on the British Board of Video Classification at that time, from the start and for several years.