The Public Lending Right Scheme 1982 (Commencement of Variations) Order 2005

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into force the variations to the Public Lending Right Scheme 1982 made by the Secretary of State on 6th June 2005.

The variations in Part 1 of the Appendix to this Order are brought into force on 1st July 2005, and those in Part 2 of the Appendix are brought into force on 1st September 2006.

The Public Lending Right Scheme provides for payments to be made to authors based on the number of times their books are lent out by public libraries. The variations in Part 1 of the Appendix take account of changes in the way in which statistics as to the number of loans made in Group H are collected. Group H is made up of all the local library authorities in Northern Ireland. Generally, the Scheme provides for payments to authors to be made on the basis of a calculation of notional loans from a number of sample libraries. Now, in Group H, records of loans from almost every library will be used, rather than records of loans from a smaller number of sample libraries (“sampling points”). This system will not, however, collect data from the very smallest libraries.

As a result, the requirement that sampling points should change periodically is no longer needed in Group H. Thus, the minimum number of sampling points which (by virtue of Article 38(2)(f) of the Scheme) must be replaced by new sampling points in any sampling year is reduced from 8 to 7 (paragraph 1(a) of Part 1 of the Appendix), and the requirement in Article 38(2)(g) that no operative sampling point will remain as such for a continuous period of more than four years will be disapplied in relation to Group H (paragraph 1(b)).

The amendment in paragraph 2 of Part 2 of the Appendix increases the upper limit of payments to any one individual author from £6,000 to £6,600. The amendment in paragraph 3 decreases the lower threshold at which registered authors are entitled to receive their registered interest from £5 to £1.

The impact of this Order on business, charities and the voluntary sector is negligible and for that reason no Regulatory Impact Assessment is required to accompany it.