British Library and Patent Office (Hansard, 22 February 1996)

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what assessment she has made as to compliance by the British library with rule 34 of the patent co-operation treaty regulations in terms of open access to documents. [16222]

§ Mr. Sproat
Rule 34 of the patent co-operation treaty does not impose any obligations on the United Kingdom as to the maintenance of a collection of documents, or as to access to such a collection. The British library does, however, take note of rule 34 and provides access to its collections of patents and journals either by way of immediate open access, or from remote storage on request.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what plans she has for the future use of Southampton buildings, Holborn, following vacation by the British library and Patent Office. [16213]

§ Mr. Sproat
The current occupants of 25 Southampton buildings, Holborn are the British library, the Patent Office and the Office of Fair Trading. The British library's collections housed there will move to the library's new building at St. Pancras following completion of that building. The Government are considering the future of 25 Southampton buildings.

§ Mr. Campbell-Savours
To ask the Secretary of State for National Heritage what plans she has for the location and provision of an open access library containing world patent and scientific information free at the point of use in respect of the British library. [16214]

§ Mr. Sproat
The British library's collections of world patents and of scientific literature are at present available for consultation free of charge at the library's reading rooms in Holborn and Aldwych. A large proportion of patents and scientific literature is available on open access. The collections will be moved to the library's new building at St. Pancras once the building has been completed. Following the move, they will be available for consultation at the reading rooms in the new building. The library has no current plans to introduce charges for consultation of material in its reading rooms.