Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cyber-attack against the British Library at the end of October 2023 on (a) authors and (b) other rights holders receiving payments via the public lending right.

The British Library receives public funding via DCMS to run the Public Lending Right scheme. Payments are made annually to eligible authors who register their work. The British Library is making good progress towards issuing Public Lending Right payments before the end of March at the latest, in line with the PLR Scheme legislation.