asked the Secretary of State for Trade whether he will consider extended copyright as a means of a self-financing public lending right.

To extend the period of copyright while making the revenue derived during the period of extension public property would be a fundamental change in the basis of copyright in this country. It would not be right to make such a change in advance of the report of the Departmental Committee on Copyright which has now been sitting for one year and has, I understand, received a number of submissions on this matter.