Authors, Booksellers and Libraries: Economic Recovery

Debate between Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay and Baroness Rebuck

Monday 10th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay (Con)]

As I said, the Booksellers Association reports that the number of independent bookshops has grown over the past 22 months. Its membership is up 12% since the pandemic began. As my noble friend knows, we will continue to consider the arguments for and against an online sales tax which, if introduced, would raise revenue to fund business rates reductions.

[Baroness Rebuck (Lab)]

I would like to ask the Minister about the current consultation on a change to UK copyright law relating to the UK’s future IP exhaustion regime, the impact of which could be far reaching for authors. Does he share my concern that, according to the Publishers Association, a move to international exhaustion could cost authors more than £500 million a year in lost income? The Minister will know that the author community is very concerned about this. I declare an interest as a non-executive director of a publishing house, as stated in the register.