The office consists of 21 staff members: The 10 assistant classifiers are paid €168 per day and are entitled to claim expenses on top of this.

[2] Before 1965, there were no certificates and all films were tailored for a general audience, resulting in several bans and cuts (no doubt also due to extremely conservative societal standards).

[3] Public controversy over the office's harsh methods came to a head in late 1964 – in 1963 alone, 31 films were rejected and 156 were cut.

[4] Critically acclaimed hits were no exception – Dr. Strangelove was cut, including Ripper's reference to Communists trying to "sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids" with fluoridated water, and Irish-shot medical drama Of Human Bondage was banned due to the heroine dying of syphilis.

[5] Even after the ban was overturned the following year,[6] it still received an over-18's certificate[7] with cuts[8][9] – nude sculptures made by Auguste Rodin were removed from the background of the title sequence.

[15] which were as follows, according to the Appeals Board chairman:[16] In addition, Over-21s certificates were awarded to four films,[17] including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,[17] Alfie,[17] and Marat/Sade.

[18] The current cinematic certificates were announced in December 2004 at the European Conference of Film Classifiers in Paris and introduced on 1 January 2005.

[20] In November 2005, a public campaign was launched to raise awareness of them, including booklets, posters, stickers and an animated certificate produced by Brown Bag Films which drew attention to their relatively new website.

[21][22][23][24] These were introduced on 1 September 1994:[25] From that date it was an offence to trade uncertified videos, which carried fines of up to £1000 and a maximum sentence of three years.

Works may also be submitted for re-classification after seven years since the original certification have passed (not an appeal per se, but rather seen as an update of classification based on current standards).

The most recent example of a (failed) appeal is The First Purge, which received an 18 certificate for strong bloody violence, sustained threat and disturbing scenes.

[34] The distributor (Universal Pictures) argued the case for a 16 certificate: We would contend that the last two films in the franchise, in particular, are similar in tone and viscerality to the current film.A The First Purge is a thematic continuation of how a group of people must fight to survive a night of government-sanctioned mayhem.

Similar to Anarchy and Election Year, The First Purge features intensely depicted violence and some gory imagery but has contextual justification.

Ger Connolly wrote back, explaining the decision in greater detail: This is the fourth film of this particular franchise.

I suggest that the context here is not sufficient to warrant a 16 classification due to the extremely brutal and frenzied acts of violence combined with racial hatred and that The First Purge is appropriately classified at 18.

The appeal viewing took place on 26 July and the decision, which was decided by a 4:1 ratio, pushed the release date back from mid-July to 4 August.

[60][61] The British version was cut by 55s to reduce scenes of torture and sexual violence involving a female prisoner, which "left the emphasis on the tragic implications rather than the infliction of pain and degradation", and lowered the certificate from 18 to 15.

The 2014 documentary Red Army received a 15 in the UK[98] but a 12A in Ireland[99] for a single use of 'cocksucker' (although the video rating was upgraded to 15).