§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent representations he has received concerning the level of remuneration received by authors through public lending right. [127824]
§ Mr. Chris SmithI have seen the case for increased funding produced by the Public Lending Right Advisory Committee; I have also received around 160 letters, mainly from authors via their MPs. I am considering these representations carefully as part of the Department's current spending review.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what was the value of his Department's funding of public lending right in(a) 1983 and (b) 2000 in (i) cash and (ii) real terms. [127828]
§ Mr. Chris SmithPublic Lending Right (PLR) received grant-in-aid funding of £2 million in 1983–84, which would equal £3.921 million in real terms. My Department provided funding of £5.15 million for PLR in 2000–01.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of library book withdrawals is represented by children's books; and if he will make a statement. [127826]
§ Mr. Chris SmithInformation about the number of book withdrawals is not collected centrally. The annual CIPFA Public Library Statistics, which are held in the House Library and are likely to be available in the larger public library reference libraries, provide information about the total bookstock, including children's books, at 31 March each year. At 31 March 1999, children's bookstock was 19.3 million compared with 19.2 million at 31 March 1998.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what proportion of his departmental budget was spent on Public Lending Right in(a) 1997, (b) 1998, (c) 1999 and (d) 2000. [127827]
§ Mr. Chris SmithThe following table shows the proportion of the Department's budget allocation to Public Lending Right as grant-in-aid:
346W
Financial year DCMS PES total £ Public Lending Right grant in aid £ PLR grant in aid as a proportion of DCMS PES total Percentage 1997–98 904,790 4,921 0.54 1998–99 924,478 5,000 0.54 1999–2000 1,002,139 5,051 0.50 2000–01 1,014,886 5,150 0.50
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport how much Public Lending Right money was paid to authors of children's books in the last year for which figures are available; and what proportion this represented of total spending on Public Lending Right. [127825]
§ Mr. Chris SmithThe Public Lending Right (PLR) computer system does not break down payments to authors by the type of book that they write. However, children's books represented 28 per cent. of registered books borrowed last year, an increase of 30 per cent. in the last ten years. It is therefore estimated that 28 per cent. of payments went to children's writers, which in the last payment round would have amounted to £1.2 million-23 per cent. of the whole PLR fund.
§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer regarding the level of funding available for Public Lending Right payments. [127823]
§ _Mr. Chris SmithWe have no scope at present to raise further the allocation to Public Lending Right (PLR) beyond the increases already announced as part of PLR's current three-year funding agreement. However, we have agreed to consider the case for an increase in funding as part of our current Spending Review which will deal with funding for the next three years.