I wish to raise one brief point on subsection (3)(b), on when readers can first use relevant material. It takes us back to an earlier discussion about small-volume, high-value publications. We said that if they were made available, the publisher might wish to put a bar on access for a period of months so that people would continue to subscribe.

New clause 1 relates specifically to non-printed material, but the same consideration may apply in publishers’ minds to printed material. If a publisher produces a specialist publication with a subscription list for 10,000 copies a year, he will want to be sure that the non-printed version supplied to the deposit library is held back for six months; but that will not happen with the printed version. It would make sense to try to achieve consistency. If we make a sensible concession to publishers by allowing a delay for non-printed materials, the concession should be made also for printed material. I hope that the Minister will take that point on board.