To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if he will assess the effects on the intellectual property rights of members of staff of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), given their change in status as a result of the creation of that organisation; and whether those staff are to be permitted to publish in their own name work produced for the MMO. (288000)

When vested, the MMO will, as any other employer, have the benefits of any work produced by its employees. Employees will not be able to publish works produced for the MMO without the organisation’s permission.

Former employees of the Marine Fisheries Agency, or another Government Department, will transfer to the MMO with their existing terms and conditions of service, which give the intellectual property rights to the employer. New MMO employees from elsewhere will be subject to similar restrictions under an MMO contract of employment.