Broadcasting Act 1990

153 Monitoring by Council of broadcasting standards

(1) It shall be the duty of the Council to monitor programmes to which this Part applies with a view to enabling the Council—

(a) to make reports on the portrayal of violence and sexual conduct in, and the standards of taste and decency attained by, such programmes generally, and

(b) to determine whether to issue complaints in respect of such programmes under section 154(7).

(2) Subject to section 160(2), the Council may make reports on the matters specified in subsection (1)(a) on such occasions as they think fit; and any such report may include an assessment of either or both of the following, namely—

(a) the attitudes of the public at large towards the portrayal of violence or sexual conduct in, or towards the standards of taste and decency attained by, programmes to which this Part applies; and

(b) any effects or potential effects on the attitudes or behaviour of particular categories of persons of the portrayal of violence or sexual conduct in such programmes or of any failure on the part of such programmes to attain such standards.

(3) The Council may publish any report made by them in pursuance of subsection (1)(a).

(4) The Council shall have the further duty of monitoring, so far as is reasonably practicable, all television and sound programmes which are transmitted or sent from outside the United Kingdom but are capable of being received there, with a view to ascertaining—

(a) how violence and sexual conduct are portrayed in those programmes; and

(b) the extent to which those programmes meet standards of taste and decency.

(5) The Council may make a report to the Secretary of State on any issues identified by them in the course of carrying out their duty under subsection (4) and appearing to them to raise questions of general broadcasting policy.