Part of Legal Deposit Libraries Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 3:15 pm on 4 June 2003.
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question, which goes to the heart of why it is better to address many of these issues through secondary
legislation. Secondary legislation gives the Secretary of State extensive opportunity to identify all those interests and to hold the rein between them to ensure that no one party has a particular veto or ruling position on the answers to any of those questions, many of which will be thorny and difficult. That is why I have had to work very closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the British Library and as many representatives of the publishing industry as possible. I thank them for their continuing support.
Some important issues have been raised, especially since Second Reading. Even on Second Reading, I acknowledged the point that my hon. Friend the Member for South Derbyshire raised about the importance of high-value, low-volume publications. When we consider new clause 1 we should be able to see how that can unfold and reassurances can be given.
Clause 1 imposes a duty on publishers to deposit any published material with the legal deposit library or libraries that is or are entitled to receive a copy of that material in the medium in which it is published. It describes the types of printed material that must be deposited and provides that non-print works that are prescribed by regulations must also be deposited. There are no details in the Bill regarding the form of non-print materials because of the fast moving pace of change in the technology involved. The clause specifically addresses the issues of sound and film recordings, identifying the limited circumstances under which those will be covered. That is, of course, only when they are incidental features of the main body of a work and not its purpose. Both film and sound recordings will continue to be collected by the National Sound Archive.