The Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill received Royal Assent on 8th May 2008. Sections 62 to 65 of the Bill make it an offence for someone in the UK to be in possession of "extreme pornography" - making no distinction between real or staged acts, or between those which are consensual versus non-consensual. This law is now on the statute books in the UK. However, it won't come into force until the Secretary of State makes a Commencement Order.
A report on the BBC News website suggests that the law will come into force from January 2009, although I haven't seen confirmation of this elsewhere. There are many other articles in the press, including the BBC News website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7364475.stm and the New Statesman magazine at http://www.newstatesman.com/200805100003
BACKLASH is a coalition of organisations and individuals who are lobbying against this law. They are working hard to delay the Commencement Order as long as possible, and also make sure that any Crown Prosecution Service guidelines take as liberal view of the law as possible. For more information please visit www.backlash-uk.org.uk
Thanks for your help and support.
Best wishes, Derek Cohen
Spanner Trust Chairman