Video Recordings and Digital Economy Bills

The Video Recordings and Digital Economy Bills are to extend in full to Northern Ireland.

Minister McCausland has welcomed the granted legislative consent to the principle of extending the provisions of the UK Video Recordings Bill and the 'transferred matters' of the Digital Economy Bill to Northern Ireland.

Commenting on the legislation the Minister said: "The Video Recordings Bill is needed because it has recently come to light that offences under the Video Recording Act 1984 are currently unenforceable. The aim of the Video Recordings Bill is to rectify this situation.

"The Act requires that videos and DVDs etc and certain boxed video games would be classified by the British Board of Film Classification. It makes it illegal to supply unclassified material and to supply age-restricted material to people below the specified age rating. It also limits the distribution of adult films material.

“The extension of the Bills to Northern Ireland demonstrates that we are fully committed to playing our part in ensuring that children and vulnerable adults are protected and that the legislation for this continues to be consistent across the United Kingdom.

Notes to editors:

1. The Video Recordings Bill was introduced to the House of Commons at Westminster as fast–track legislation on 15 December 2009. It will go to second reading in the House of Lords on 18 January. The Digital Economy Bill was introduced to the House of Lords at Westminster on 19 November 2009. It is currently at Committee stage in the Lords. The granted legislative consent to the principle of extending the provisions of the UK Video Recordings Bill and the 'transferred matters' of the Digital Economy Bill to Northern Ireland was approved by the Assembly on 11 January 2010.
2. The Digital Economy Bill will amend the Video Recordings Act 1984 to ensure that all video games that are sold or supplied on discs or other physical products are appropriately age classified. In practice this would mean that anyone selling/supplying video games which are classified as only suitable for persons aged 12 years and above would be caught by the offences to be set down in the amended Act. In addition, it is proposed that the Video Standards Council will take on the responsibility for classifying all video games and they would use the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) classification system. This policy was developed following an independent review by Professor Tanya Byron (Clinical Psychologist) to assess the risks children face from the internet and video games.
3. The Digital Economy Bill also supports the extending of the Public Lending Right to rights holders of books in non-print formats.
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