Public Lending Right: Finance
(asked on 13th January 2022) - View Source
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.