Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if she will hold discussions with the Advertising Standards Authority on the broadcasting of images of animal cruelty on TV adverts for animal welfare charities before the 9.00pm watershed.

Advertising across broadcast media in the UK is regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), an organisation independent of government, through their Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code). The ASA regulates charity advertisements and not the charities themselves, which are regulated by the Charity Commission.

In their rules, the ASA makes it clear that advertising featuring animals should not contain anything that is likely to cause serious or widespread offence, or undue fear or distress. The BCAP code specifically requires broadcasters to exercise responsible judgement on the scheduling of advertisements and avoid unsuitable juxtapositions between advertising material and programmes, especially those that could distress or offend viewers or listeners. In addition, all broadcast advertising is cleared by Clearcast to ensure advertising content is thoroughly checked according to the BCAP before it airs.

Currently the Secretary of State has no plans to discuss this with the ASA.