Authors, Booksellers and Libraries: Economic Recovery Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Baroness Rebuck
Main Page: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Rebuck's debates with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Authors, Booksellers and Libraries: Economic Recovery
Baroness Rebuck Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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.