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The PLR budget is to be reduced by 7% over the next four years as part of the Government's Comprehensive Spending Review. The cuts, which see the fund reduced from £7.45m in the 2010/11 fiscal year to £6.956m by 2013/14, are much less steep than those facing the Department for Culture Media and Sport whose budget is to fall by 25% by 2014/15.
PLR, the administrative body which itself is to be abolished as part of the cuts, said that "in the context of the Government’s wider Comprehensive Spending Review we feel that this is a reasonable settlement".
The Society of Authors was similarly relieved, commenting: "While any reduction in spending on PLR is much to be regretted, at first sight it appears that PLR has fared relatively well, certainly compared with many other organisations sponsored by the Department for Culture Media and Sport," and added that Jeremy Hunt, the secretary of state, had heeded the representations made to him by the society and other organisations. "He has recognised that PLR is a legal right and is one of the department’s ‘front line’ services which ought to be given priority." The SoA said it remained "opposed to the dotty proposal that PLR should be transferred to another body".
The government also announced that it would not be extending PLR at this time to ebooks and audio books as enabled by the Digital Economy Act earlier in the year.