Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors J.Boulton and K.Holman.

To note any substitution of Committee Members in accordance with Council Procedure Rules 19 - 22.

The following substitutions of Committee Members had been made in accordance with Council Procedure Rules 19-22:

Councillor H.Bower for J.Boulton

Councillor B.Fitzsimon for K.Holman

Report of the Executive Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance) asking the Committee to consider an application for the age classification of a series of short films being shown as part of the Beacon Victims of Crime Film Festival.

Report of the Executive Director (Public Protection, Planning and Governance) asking the Licensing Committee to consider an application for the age classification of a series of short films being shown as part of the Beacon Victims of Crime Film Festival. The films were intended to be shown publicly to an audience ranging from 15 years upwards at CW Entertainment on 7, 8, and 9 February 2018. The Committee was asked to view the films and classify them in line with the BBFC’s Classification Guidelines deciding if they were suitable and pitched for an audience aged 15 years and over.

The purpose of film classification was to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or otherwise unsuitable content. Film classification also provided consumers with the information they might need about a particular film before deciding whether or not to view it.

Campus West currently held a premises licence for the provision of regulated entertainment. Within the licence were mandatory conditions that related to the showing of films to children under the age of 18 years.

The British Board of Film Classification was an independent body which brought a degree of uniformity to the classification of films nationally. However, statutory powers on the classification of films remained with the local authority, which could overrule any of the BBFC’s decisions for films exhibited under its own licensing jurisdiction.

The films which formed part of the Beacon Victims of Crime Film Festival did not have an age classification from the BBFC.

The Beacon Victims of Crime Film Festival was a collaborative project between the Hertfordshire Police and Crime Commissioner and Oaklands College Media Department. This was the second time the event had run and at the initial event film students who studied in Welwyn Garden City made short films on the theme of victims of crime.

The Beacon Victims of Crime Film Festival last year was invite only and therefore not open to the public and as such no film classification was required. However the event in 2018 would be open to the public and therefore a film classification was required.

In 2018 the films would not have been classified by the BBFC and many of the students were not yet 18. The organisers had requested the Committee to age classify these films in order to screen the films publicly with a maximum certification of 15. The films needed to be classified in line with the BBFC’S Classification Guidelines.

The Oaklands College Media Co-ordinator explained that the Hertfordshire based Victim Support Service created by the Police and Crime Commissioner took money from those prosecuted to go to the service and funded counselling and restorative justice (where the victim met the perpetrator).

The College’s students benefitted from being involved in the film festival and were interested in the theme of crime with some of them having been victims, for example, of cyber crime.

Councillors would be invited to the film festival.

The Committee viewed the following Films:-