GovWire

The Public Lending Right (PLR) is the right for eligible authors, illustrators, narrators and other book contributors to receive payment for the loans of their books by public libraries in the UK. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been engaging with the British Library, which manages the PLR Scheme, about changes that would help to improve the administration of the Scheme, and intends to make some technical amendments to the Schemes provisions to implement these changes.

This consultation therefore seeks views on proposed amendments to the PLR Scheme in order to:

• amend the Scheme so that it is less prescriptive regarding designation of sampling points, enabling the British Library to increase the sample size with the option to move to collecting comprehensive loans data from all library authorities in the UK, and

• remove the requirement, in certain circumstances, for an application

for registration of a posthumously eligible book to be made by the deceased authors personal representatives. This means a person registering books for the first time after inheriting from a deceased author may not need to have a solicitor/executor involved in making the application, providing for a more efficient and less burdensome administration process.