Copyright

7.38The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 established the category of parliamentary copyright. Parliamentary copyright subsists in works made by or under the direction or control of the House of Commons or the House of Lords. This includes any work made by an officer or employee of either House in the course of their duties and any sound recording, film or live broadcast of the proceedings of each House. The House by or under whose direction and control the work is made is the first owner of copyright in the work; if it is made under the direction and control of both Houses, they are joint first owners of copyright. A work is not ‘made under the direction or control of’ either House merely by being commissioned by or on behalf of that House. The term of protection for parliamentary copyright works is 50 years from the end of the year in which the work was made. The functions of the House of Commons as owner of copyrights are exercised by the Speaker, and those of the House of Lords by the Clerk of the Parliaments. Provisions are made for the delegation of the functions and for their discharge in vacancies of those offices and (as regards the Commons) at times of dissolution.

Parliamentary copyright also subsists in every bill introduced into Parliament from the time when the text of the bill is handed in to the House in which it is introduced. Once the bill has been carried to the second House, copyright is owned by both Houses jointly. No other copyright subsists in the bill after it has been introduced into Parliament. Parliamentary copyright in bills ceases when they receive Royal Assent: Acts of Parliament are protected by Crown copyright.

The re-use of material in which parliamentary copyright subsists is governed by the terms of the Open Parliament Licence, which allows third parties to copy, publish, distribute, transmit, or adapt Parliamentary information commercially or non-commercially provided they acknowledge the source and comply with a number of conditions. The Open Parliament Licence does not apply to certain types of information, including material in which third party rights subsist and information protected by other intellectual property rights (eg patents, trade marks and design rights).1 Under s 45 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, copyright is not infringed by anything done for the purposes of parliamentary or judicial proceedings, or for the purposes of reporting such proceedings, but this does not authorise the copying of a work which is itself a published report of the proceedings.