Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Callanan on 8 September (HL7080), whether this example of Parliament not maintaining copyright over the publication of UK-adopted international accounting standards has a precedent; and if not, what other examples there are where they have granted the copyright of the publication of laws passed by the UK Parliament to (1) companies registered in Delaware, or (2) any other third party organisations.

We are required, by the International Accounting Standards and European Public Limited-Liability Company (Amendment etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019, to publish a consolidated text of UK-adopted international accounting standards. Each jurisdiction which requires the use of international accounting standards has a licence agreement with the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation, who develop the standards and own the copyright for them.

An agreement between the Government and the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation has not been finalised and, therefore, further detail may not be disclosed at this time. However, the agreement is a licence to allow the use of material and definitions, protected under copyright.