2010 request by committee on obscenity laws still pending before House Business Committee

A request made in October 2010 for the committee set up to update obscenity laws to meet under the auspices of the House of Representatives and use its resources and facilities is still pending, the Home Affairs Ministry said.

Referring to claims by Labour MP Owen Bonnici that the committee was never set up because the minister had "slept on the matter", the ministry said that as Dr Bonnici was well aware, the committee was set up on April 26, 2010.

Its members are Beppe Fenech Adami and Francis Zammit Dimech, representing the government and Dr Bonnici and Evarist Bartolo, for the Opposition.

The members had decided that the committee should meet under the auspices of the House of Representatives and use its resources and facilities.

"In view of this, the then Minister for Justice and Home Affairs, as chair of the Committee, wrote to the Leader of the House on October 13, 2010 with this request, which had since remained pending before the House Business Committee."

(The then Minister of Justice and Home Affairs was Carm Mifsud Bonnici, who recently succeeded minister Tonio Borg as Leader of the House. Dr Mifsud Bonnici is now no longer chairman of the obscenity laws committee)