Indecent Displays (control) Act 1981
| DOI | 10.1093/slr/3.1.31 |
| Pages | 31-39 |
| Date | 01 March 1982 |
| Year | 1982 |
| Published By | Oxford University Press |
Indecent Displays (Control) Act
1981
By Colin Manchester, LLB. (Lond), Ph.D (Birm.)*
This statute, introduced as a private member's
BQl by
Mr. Tim Sainsbury with
all party support, received the Royal Assent
on
July 27 and came into force
three months after that date.1 The Act is the culmination of a number of
unsuccessful attempts over the last few years to promote such legislation,
starting with a Government-introduced Cinematograph and Indecent Dis-
plays Bill in 1973. The aim of the Act, as expressed in its long tide, is to make
fresh provision with respect to the public display of indecent matter
and
to this
end a number of existing statutes dealing with indecent public display are
repealed. They are replaced by a new offence in section
1
of the Act of publicly
displaying indecent matter.
Public Display
By section 1 (2), any matter which is displayed in or so as to be visible from
any public place shall be deemed to be publicly displayed and section 1 (3)
goes on to define what is meant by "public place." This means any place to
which die public have or
are
permitted to have access (whether
on
payment or
otherwise) while the matter is displayed. There arc two exceptions here, rat
where the place is (a) one where the public have to pay for admission to die
display
and
(b)
a
shop
or
any part ofa
shop
to whkh access can
be
gained
only
by passing beyond an adequate warning notice,3 provided that in both in-
stances persons under die age of 18 years are not admitted.
The concept of public display here is rather wider than under the previous
legislation, die principal provisions of
which
were section 4 of die Vagrancy
Act 1824,3 section 54 (12) of the Metropolitan Police Act 18394 (and its
counterpart
in
die provinces, section 28 of die Town Police Clauses Act 1847s)
and die Indecent Advertisements Act 1889.* Under these provisions public
display was limited to displays in or visible from places such as highways,
footpaths and thoroughfares. Thus displays inside buildings, provided they
were visible from outside, amounted to an offence, but displays visible only
from inside did not It
is
true that both die Vagrancy Act and die Metropolitan
Police Act applied to displays in a "public place," which term could be
regarded as covering buildings to which die public had access (and dius
*
Lecturer in Law, University of Birmingham.
1
See s.
5
(5). The original period
in
the Bill was one month, but this was increased to three
months after representations from magazine producers and newsagents.
1 As
to whkh, see s.
I (6).
Jc83.
4c+7.
«c89.
•c.18.
31
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