Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Baroness Blackstone Excerpts

Monday 11th March 2013 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone]

My Lords, I support my noble friend Lord Howarth of Newport. In doing so, I declare an interest as chairman of the board of the British Library. I will not repeat all my noble friend’s arguments, which were made at some length and extremely cogently. Nobody could have made the case better. However, on behalf of the great cultural institutions, of which the British Library is one, I want to say how important this amendment is. As my noble friend said, it is absolutely right that more than 40% of the in-copyright collections at the British Library are orphan works. I can confirm that.

My noble friend made a plea for flexibility and this is an example of legislation where flexibility should be built in. Clause 69 is an important clause in this Bill and I congratulate the Government on bringing it forward. However we need to make sure that it leads to the maximum use of orphan works for research, scholarship and other public uses. I fear that without this amendment, maximum use will not take place and many of the benefits of Clause 69 will we lost, as my noble friend has said. I cannot believe that the Government would want that to happen.

It will be extremely damaging if there is a requirement to pay upfront for orphan works in the way that the Bill requires. It is also quite unnecessary. I can see no downside to making this small change; otherwise it will end up—as my noble friend has said—as a tax on the very public institutions that both the Government and all parts of this House want to support. I ask the Minister to respond positively to this amendment. It is extremely important and will make a great deal of difference to this Bill.