HC Deb 17 December 1998 vol 322 cc681-2W
Mr. Pike

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how he plans to take forward policy on the legal deposit of publications following the report of the working group chaired by Sir Anthony Kenny. [64743]

Mr. Chris Smith

I am arranging for the working group's report to be placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament and published on both my Department's web site and that of the British Library.

The report recommends that there should be a single national published archive of non-print material. It proposes that a code of practice for voluntary deposit of electronic publications should be drawn up, but suggests that, in the longer term, only statutory deposit can secure a comprehensive national published archive.

The report proposes that the following should be deposited with the national published archive: CD-roms to be deposited in a single copy only after 12 UK sales. The group has put forward alternative options for access: accessibility on a stand alone basis at a single site (the preference of the publishers); or dissemination among the legal deposit libraries using a secure ring fenced network (the preference of the libraries). Microforms to be deposited in a single copy only after six UK sales. For British films, a mint print to be deposited, plus a negative or equivalent after three years; for other films released in the UK, a best copy; for British videos, a mint condition duplicate; for other videos, a new condition reference copy. For sound recordings, two copies to be deposited.

It concludes that it would not be feasible to include on-line publications and databases, although it suggests that provision be made to bring them into a statutory system in the future, subject to full consideration and consultation in each case.

For print publications, the report recommends that while the six existing legal deposit libraries be retained, in the light of the increasing move towards devolution and regional Government, more work should be done to reduce the number of copies claimed by the libraries, especially in the area of local magazines and periodicals. I regard this as important.

On the issue of improved access to deposited material in Northern Ireland, the report suggests that if an acceptable way can be found to allow secure networking of deposited electronic material, an access point in Northern Ireland could be included in a secure network.

Because the Government believe it is important to plug the growing gap in the national published archive, I have asked Sir Anthony Kenny to draw up, through a group of technical experts from the legal deposit libraries and publishers, detailed guidelines for a voluntary code of practice. I have asked Sir Anthony to examine the scope for this to include a basis for the secure ring-fenced networking of CD-roms between the deposit libraries in a way that will satisfy the publishers that there would be no undue risk for licence holders.

However, I agree with the report's conclusion that a voluntary code will not be viable in the longer term and I believe the report makes a convincing case for moving towards legislation for the legal deposit of non-print publications on the basis of minimum burden on publishers and minimum loss of sales. It will be necessary to do further work on definitions and the impact on business and I have asked Sir Anthony Kenny to take this forward through the medium of the technical group of library and publishing experts. Once that is done, we shall move towards legislation.