Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's expected timeline is of when the service providing payments to (a) authors and (b) other rights holders will be restored following the cyber-attack against the British Library at the end of October 2023.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
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.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
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.
Asked by: Earl of Clancarty (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential to support authors by increasing the Public Lending Right Fund.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
There has been no assessment of an increase of the Public Lending Right (PLR) central fund. The PLR central fund is part of the overall funding for the British Library, which is set for each Spending Review period.
The PLR Scheme is a valued right for authors and other contributors to receive payment when their books are borrowed from public libraries. My department conducts an assessment of the rate per loan annually following a recommendation by the British Library. The PLR rate per loan calculation is based on the annual number of ‘notional loans’ of books from public libraries in the UK.
Asked by: Drew Hendry (Scottish National Party - Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the remuneration rate paid to authors under the Public Lending Right as a result of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak on (a) authors' incomes and (b) publishing industries supply chains.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Public Lending Right (PLR) is a legal right to authors for payment from a central fund for eligible book contributors when their books are borrowed from public libraries. It applies to physical books, e-books, and e-audiobooks. Illustrators, photographers, translators and editors are also compensated for the loan of their books from public libraries.
The British Library administers the PLR Scheme and recommends annually to the department the revised PLR rate per loan. The recommended PLR rate per loan is determined by the annual registered loans figure for the relevant year and the available PLR central fund.
The PLR rate per loan was increased in January 2021 from 9.03 pence per loan to 9.55 pence per loan and the department will shortly consult on a revised PLR rate per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2020/21, to be introduced in January 2022.
Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, if she will make it her policy to increase funding for the Public Lending Right.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Public Lending Right (PLR) is a legal right to authors for payment from a central fund for eligible book contributors when their books are borrowed from public libraries. It applies to physical books, e-books, and e-audiobooks. Illustrators, photographers, translators and editors are also compensated for the loan of their books from public libraries.
The British Library administers the PLR Scheme and recommends annually to the department the revised PLR rate per loan. The recommended PLR rate per loan is determined by the annual registered loans figure for the relevant year and the available PLR central fund.
The PLR rate per loan has increased annually from 6.20 pence per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2012/13 to 9.55 pence per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2019/20. The department will shortly consult on a revised PLR rate per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2020/21, to be introduced in January 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on increasing the Public Lending Right.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
There has been no recent discussion with the Welsh Government on increasing the Public Lending Right (PLR). My department will shortly consult with sector stakeholders, including the Welsh Government, on a revised PLR rate per loan for the PLR Scheme year 2020/21. It is intended that the revised PLR rate per loan be introduced in January 2022.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how many authors received compensation through the Public Lending Right in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland, (c) Northern Ireland and (d) England in 2019.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
For the Public Lending Right (PLR) Scheme year 2019/20, PLR payments were made to 20,911 registered authors in the United Kingdom. The British Library, which administers the PLR Scheme on behalf of the department, does not maintain a record of payments to authors by country of residence in the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru - Ceredigion)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what the total cost to the public purse was of the Public Lending Right in (a) 2019 and (b) 2020.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Public Lending Right was allocated £6.6 million for the PLR Scheme year 2019/20; and £6.6 million for the PLR Scheme year 2020/21.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support professional writers.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
A thriving UK publishing industry is crucial to support the development of professional writers. We know that the Covid-19 pandemic presents a significant challenge to the publishing industry. The Government’s response has been one of the most generous and comprehensive in the world, including the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme and the Bounceback Loan Scheme and business rates reliefs. The publishing sector has also benefited from the government's introduction of a zero rate of VAT to e-publications, which will make it clear e-publications are entitled to the same VAT treatment as their physical counterparts.
In terms of direct support for authors, Arts Council England’s (ACE) ‘time-to-write’ grants are a vital source of funding that allow authors to dedicate time to the completion of manuscripts. Authors also receive support via ACE's Developing Your Creative Practice Fund, which was designed with the expectation that writers would be among the beneficiaries.
In addition, over the course of the pandemic, ACE contributed £400,000 to the Society of Authors’ ‘Authors Emergency Fund’, in order to ensure that authors whose income had been decimated by the pandemic were able to remain active in their discipline.
The Government also maintains a strong legal framework to protect the rights and interests of writers, including through copyright and the Public Lending Right.
Asked by: Patrick Grady (Scottish National Party - Glasgow North)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of increasing the rate of payment per book loan under the Public Lending Right.
Answered by Caroline Dinenage
The rate per loan is reviewed annually by the government following a recommendation from the British Library Board. The Department holds a public consultation with major groups representing the interests of authors, library authorities and other stakeholders in the public library sector in the UK, and to the devolved administrations. The consultation, and outcome following Ministers’ considerations, are posted on ghttps://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-lending-right-rate-per-loan-2019-to-2020-consultationov.uk