Public Lending Right: Rate Per Loan 2019 to 2020 consultation
Detail of outcome
Statutory Instruments (No. 1370) The Public Lending Right Scheme 1982 (Commencement of Variation) (No.2) Order 2020 came into force on 11 January 2021. This changed the rate per loan to 9.55 pence.
Detail of feedback received
DCMS ran a 4 week public consultation on the British Library Board’s recommendation to increase the rate per loan from 9.03 pence to 9.55 pence. The consultation ran from 29 September to 27 October 2020 for the 2019 to 2020 scheme year. A consultation letter was sent to 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.
We received 12 responses, all were supportive of the proposal to increase the PLR rate per loan to 9.55 pence. The government therefore concluded that stakeholders welcomed the proposed increase to the rate per loan and proceeded with this increase.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The Public Lending Right (PLR) is a right for authors and other rights holders to receive payments from a central fund for the public lending of their books by libraries in the UK. The 2019 to 2020 PLR scheme year applies to the lending of physical books and audiobooks and the remote lending of e-books and e-audiobooks from public libraries.
Each year the British Library Board (who are responsible for administering the scheme) make a recommendation to the Secretary of State of the rate per loan to be paid from the PLR fund to registered authors, illustrators and other contributors. The rate per loan is calculated on the basis of the size of the fund available and an estimate by the British Library of the total number of loans of their registered works, obtained from a sample of public libraries in the UK.
The British Library Board has proposed a rate per loan of 9.55 pence for payments in the 2019 to 2020 scheme year. This is an increase of 0.52 pence, from 9.03 pence and reflects the central fund being unchanged and a reduction in the estimated number of loans of books registered for PLR.
This consultation invites views from authors and other interested parties on the proposed rate per loan for the 2019 to 2020 public lending right scheme year.
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 1 December 2020 + show all updates
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Public Feedback
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First published.