Day 055 - 25 Nov 94 - Page 31
1 MR. MORRIS: I think that is all I want to say on that. Is
2 there anything else you want to say about this whole
3 process of recommendations and proposals? Is it an ongoing
4 process?
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is clearly ongoing, because the letters --
7 you said that they were prepared to reconsider one of your
8 points and would be very surprised if they were not
9 prepared to consider any further points you put to them?
10 A. Yes. The consultation deadline was, I think, last
11 week. Submissions, I am sure, have been received from
12 other organisations as well.
13
14 Q. You do not expect them to turn a deaf ear on principle to
15 anything you say in the future?
16 A. No, not at all.
17
18 MR. MORRIS: In fact, would it be fair to say that things are
19 moving in the direction which you have been lobbying for?
20 A. In relation to the ITC, yes.
21
22 Q. It was said in this court by Mr. Miles, I believe -- if
23 I might paraphrase him -- that there was not any real
24 concern about television advertising, public concern,
25 because they got so few complaints; and also, of the
26 complaints they got, something like one per cent were
27 "validated" -- his word. What do you say to that?
28 A. I think that complaints are not the only way that
29 public concern is likely to be expressed. In fact, I think
30 it is probably unlikely that general concerns in this area
31 are likely to be expressed in terms of complaints to the
32 regulatory bodies; and there is a number of reasons for
33 that. Firstly, a great number of people are not aware of
34 the existence of the regulatory bodies and how to contact
35 them. Secondly, it tends to be only a relative small
36 number of people that ever put pen to paper on a subject.
37 Thirdly, particularly in the area of health and nutrition,
38 I think a complainant needs to have quite a good
39 understanding of nutrition issues and, particularly, how
40 those relate to the Code and to have a detailed
41 understanding of the Code, and that is not something that
42 the majority of people are likely to have.
43
44 In addition to that, whilst the regulatory bodies may
45 acknowledge general complaints about, for example, the
46 level of advertising of fatty and sugary foods, for
47 example, to children, their procedures and existing codes
48 do not allow them, they do not have the mechanism for
49 dealing with that; they can only deal with complaints about
50 individual adverts.
51
52 I think both regulatory bodies have acknowledged that
53 complaints are only one way and not the only way in which
54 public concern may be expressed; and, in fact, both bodies
55 carry out their own research which in some ways seeks to
56 complement concerns they may get through direct complaints.
57
58 Q. If people were complaining on matters that are now being
59 acknowledged for the first time, or certainly to that
60 extent, in the new proposals, then those complaints would
