Public Lending Right Act 1979

4 The register. U.K.

(1) The register shall be kept in such form, and contain such particulars of books and their authors, as may be prescribed.

(2) No application for an entry in the register is to be entertained in the case of any book unless it falls within a class, description or category of books prescribed as one in respect of which public lending right subsists.

(3) The scheme shall provide for the register to be conclusive both as to whether public lending right subsists in respect of a particular book and also as to the persons (if any) who are for the time being entitled to the right.

(4) Provision shall be included in the scheme for entries in the register to be made and amended, on application made in the prescribed manner and supported by prescribed particulars (verified as prescribed) so as to indicate, in the case of any book who (if any one) is for the time being entitled to public lending right in respect of it.

(5) The [F1 Board] may direct the removal from the register of every entry relating to a book in whose case no sum has become due by way of public lending right for a period of at least 10 years, but without prejudice to a subsequent application for the entries to be restored to the register.

[F2 (6) The Board may require the payment of fees, according to prescribed scales and rates, for supplying copies of entries in the register.

(6A) A copy of an entry in the register is, in all legal proceedings, admissible in evidence as of equal validity with the original if it is certified in writing by—

(a) a member of the Board,

(b) a person employed by, or contracted to provide services for, the Board with authority in that behalf (which authority it is unnecessary to prove).]

(7) It shall be an offence for any person, in connection with the entry of any matter whatsoever in the register, to make any statement which he knows to be false in a material particular or recklessly to make any statement which is false in a material particular; and a person who commits an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine of not more than [F3 level 5 on the standard scale]

(8) Where an offence under subsection (7) above which has been committed by a body corporate is proved to have been committed with the consent or connivance of, or to be attributable to any neglect on the part of, a director, manager, secretary or other similar officer of the body corporate, or any person who was purporting to act in any such capacity, he (as well as the body corporate) shall be guilty of that offence and be liable to be proceeded against accordingly.

Where the affairs of a body corporate are managed by its members, this subsection applies in relation to the acts and defaults of a member in connection with his functions of management as if he were a director of the body corporate.

Textual Amendments

F1 Word in s. 4(5) substituted (1.10.2013) by The Public Bodies (Abolition of the Registrar of Public Lending Right) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/2352), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 10(2) (with art. 8)

F2 S. 4(6)(6A) substituted for s. 4(6) (1.10.2013) by The Public Bodies (Abolition of the Registrar of Public Lending Right) Order 2013 (S.I. 2013/2352), art. 1(2), Sch. 1 para. 10(3) (with art. 8)

F3 Words substituted by virtue of (E.W.) Criminal Justice Act 1982 (c.48, SIF 39:1), s. 46; (S.) Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1975 (c.21, SIF 39:1), s. 289G and (N.I.) S.I. 1984/703 (N.I.3), art. 5