APPENDIX 1
Memorandum from the Advertising Association
1. INTRODUCTION
The Advertising Association (AA) is a federation
of 25 trade bodies representing the advertising and promotional
marketing industry, including advertisers, agencies, the media
and support services in the UK. It is the only body that speaks
for all sides of an industry that was worth over £16.7 billion
in 2002. Further information about the AA, its membership and
remit is available on our website at: http://www.adassoc.org.uk/.
2. SCOPE OF
AA RESPONSE
The AA welcomes the opportunity to respond to
this Inquiry by the Environmental Audit Committee's Sub-Committee
on Environmental Crime of the House of Commons into fly-tipping,
fly-posting, litter, graffiti and noise. The AA's response is
limited to the issue of fly-posting only.
3. LEGISLATIVE
FRAMEWORK AND
ENFORCEMENT
Fly-posting falls under the direct jurisdiction
of local authorities as part of their planning responsibilities.
Local planning authorities have wide-ranging powers to deal with
the problem and as with all planning enforcement matters it is
for them to determine whether to take action and, if so, what
form that action should take.
The laws containing the principal offences and
penalties with potential relevance to fly-posting, and under which
local authorities can take action, are:
Highways Act 1980 (Section 132)
Town & Country Planning Act 1990 (Sections 224
& 225)
Town & Country Planning (Control of Advertisements)
Regulations 1992 (Regulation 27)
London Local Authorities Act 1995
Anti-social Behaviour Act 2003 (Section 53)
The sanctions that relevant authorities can
make use of under the above legislation should not be underestimated.
For example, the maximum penalty on summary conviction under Section
224 of the 1990 Act and Regulation 27 of the 1992 Regulations
is £2,500 per poster, with a daily penalty of £250 per
day for a continuing offence, as amended by the Anti-social Behaviour
Act 2003. Further provisions controlling fly-posting were also
introduced in Sections 43 to 47 of the 2003 Act, which permits
authorised officers of local authorities to issue fixed penalty
notices for any person or persons caught in flagrante delicto.
As well as the penalties themselves, a conviction would serve
to generate adverse publicity for the advertisers and agencies
concerned as well as the embarrassment for them of prosecution.
Clearly the costs associated with creating such a campaign would
also have been wasted.
Meanwhile, the Department for Transport, Local
Government & the Regions' Control of Fly-Posting: a good practice
guide published in November 2000 contains useful guidance for
local authorities about this whole area.
As most fly-posting is illegal[1],
it is explicitly excluded in clause 1.2(m) from the remit of the
Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP)'s The British Code of
Advertising, Sales Promotion & Direct Market Practice. This
is the code that covers all non-broadcast advertising, including
legitimate outdoor advertising. The CAP is the self-regulatory
body that creates, revises and enforces the Code, which is then
endorsed and administered by the independent Advertising Standards
Authority (ASA).
4. IMPLICATIONS
OF FLY-POSTING
FOR LEGITIMATE
ADVERTISING BUSINESS
The AA regards fly-posting as an unacceptable
activity. Not only is it an anti-social activity, through the
degradation of other people's environments, it is usually illegal.
Despite the fact that fly-posting is outside
the remit of the ASA, it is still an issue for the legitimate
advertising business because it serves to:
— bring conventional advertising into
disrepute;
— defaces legitimate poster sites;
— devalues the legitimate paid-for
outdoor advertising industry; and,
— undermines the rights of commercial
freedom of expression for the overwhelming majority of law-abiding
practitioners.
For this reason, the AA strongly opposes the
activity and discourages its employment in advertising campaigns.
5. AA ACTIVITY
In May 2002 the AA lent its support to a well-publicised
campaign co-ordinated by Westminster City Council to target those
advertisers responsible for illegal fly-posting activities within
the borough in an attempt to stamp down hard on offenders. The
AA welcomes such campaigns by councils and would be happy to co-operate
with others in so far as this is possible.
The AA also takes the opportunity to raise awareness
of the fact that fly-posting is illegal from time to time, for
example via the advertising trade press.
However, the AA has principally addressed this
issue via the CAP, even though fly-posting is outside the Committee's
remit, as discussed above. The CAP has served as a particularly
useful forum, given that all the relevant trade bodies in relation
to non-broadcast advertising sit upon it. The CAP has taken advantage
of its unique position in this respect by undertaking a number
of initiatives to combat the problem of illegal fly-posting. Action
has been further facilitated by the fact that the Director-General
of the AA is also the current Chairman of the CAP.
The AA understands that the CAP will be submitting
its own evidence and would therefore refer the members of the
Sub-Committee on Environmental Crime to that submission.
This submission, meanwhile, has the support
of the Outdoor Advertising Association of Great Britain Ltd[2],
which is one of the AA's members.
6. ORAL EVIDENCE
The AA trusts that the above evidence provides
a useful overview of the problem of fly-posting in relation to
and as it impacts upon the advertising business, but stands ready
to give oral evidence before the Environmental Audit Committee's
Sub-Committee on Environmental Crime, if so called.
February 2004
1 Some local authorities exceptionally set aside specific
areas where fly-posting is permitted, but the general rule is
that the activity is illegal. Back
2
The Outdoor Advertising Association of Great Britain Ltd (OAA)
is the trade association representing the UK Poster Contractors
(both Outdoor and Transport). It is the central reference point
for the Outdoor or Poster industry with the objective of advancing
and protecting the general trade interests of its members. It
is also charged with maintaining the OAA Code of Practice. The
primary function is to contribute to the provision of an environment
which encourages growth of business. Back
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