The Office of Film Censor was created by the Censorship of Films Act 1923. The film censor is appointed to undertake the functions provided for in this, and subsequent legislation, including the Video Recordings Act 1989. The legislation provides that no film shall be exhibited in public unless it is certified as fit for public exhibition by the film censor.
The legislation gives the film censor the power to certify films and to impose conditions or restrictions upon their exhibition. It also provides for the prohibition of films where the film censor forms the opinion that such film or some part thereof is unfit for general exhibition in public by reason of its being indecent, obscene or blasphemous or because the exhibition thereof in public would tend to inculcate principles contrary to public morality or would be otherwise subversive of public morality.