Public Lending Right PLR is the right for authors/illustrators to receive payment for the loans of their books by public libraries. A Rate Per Loan of 7.67 pence is proposed for the payments to be made in February 2016. This represents an increase from last year’s Rate of 6.66 pence

PLR say: We are aware that the recent changes to how libraries are run including the setting up of community and volunteer libraries may have the potential to restrict the sample from which PLR can select. However, it should be noted that if a community-supported library forms part of a library authority’s statutory provision, it would still fall within the PLR scheme. Under the PLR legislation local community libraries set up by independent groups and managed outside the local authority public library service cannot be included in the PLR library ‘sample’. (Only public libraries operating as part of the statutory library service provided by local authorities under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act qualify for PLR.) As community libraries remain a minority this should not be a cause for concern at present. The ‘grossing up’ calculation of actual loans to give a national figure (taken from the library borrowing figures reported by CIPFA) should address any anomalies with the number of loans we would expect from each library authority. However, the PLR team will continue to monitor the situation to ensure that the sample is not adversely affected.

The Chancellor announced the results of the government’s spending review on 25 November 2015. As part of this announcement the British Library was informed that PLR has received a ‘flat-cash’ settlement. Its funding will therefore remain at £6.6m up to 2019.