Legal loophole leaves DVD laws ineffective
Legal loophole leaves DVD laws ineffective
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Tuesday, 25, Aug 2009 09:28
By Lewis Bazley.
Retailers who have sold 18-rated films or videogames to children cannot be prosecuted due to a legal mistake quarter of a century ago, it has emerged.
Numerous prosecutions under the 1984 Video Regulations Act (VRA) have been dropped, as the then government failed to notify the European Commission about the technical specifics of the legislation.
The VRA was brought in during Margaret Thatcher's administration and clarified age ratings for films and videogames, as well as criminalising the sale of violent computer games to minors.
But after the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) discovered the law had not been properly ratified, dozens of prosecutions have been dropped.
Culture Media and Sport Minister Barbara Follett confirmed the loophole in a letter to industry bodies, saying the VRA was "no longer enforceable against individuals in United Kingdom courts".
However, a spokeswoman for the DCMS said retailers had agreed to adhere to the rules on a voluntary basis and previous prosecutions would still stand.
"Our legal advice is that those previously prosecuted will be unable to overturn their prosecution or receive financial recompense," she added.
Some 87 people were convicted under the VRA in 2007, according to the most recently available Ministry of Justice figures, for offences including supplying material which should be sold only in sex shops and selling unclassified work.
Commenting on the discovery of the loophole in the VRA, the Liberal Democrat's culture spokesman Don Foster said: "The Conservatives' incompetence when they were in government has made laws designed to prevent video piracy and protect children from harmful DVDs unenforceable and thrown film censorship into chaos.
"This must be a massive embarrassment to the Tories, especially as David Cameron was the special adviser to the home secretary in 1993 when the law was amended."
However, shadow culture secretary Jeremy Hunt said it was "outrageous" the error had gone unnoticed for a quarter of a century.
"Much of the problem would have been avoided if they had sorted out the classification of video games earlier, as we and many others in the industry have been urging them to do," he added.