Public lending rights (PLR) were introduced in the United Kingdom in 1979 under an act that gave UK authors a legal right, separate from copyright. Funding for this remuneration is provided by the government via the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport and the payments made to authors are related to the frequency their books are loaned out by public lending libraries. The management of this remuneration is the responsibility of the PLR Office which is a government agency located in Stockton-on-Tees in the north of England. 

£2 million was initially allocated by the government to fund PLR. The fund had risen to £7.6 million by 2006.  

 

The payment per loan is 5.98 p. An author whose books are borrowed 50,000 times will receive 50,000 x 5.98 p = £2,990. Any author earning less than £1 for his loans will receive nothing from the PLR Office.

In the United Kingdom, nearly 25,000 authors receive a PLR payment every year and, for many of them, this payment represents a significant proportion of their income. To ensure that the most popular authors do not monopolise the remuneration, UK law provides for a cap of £6,600. About 280 authors receive this maximum amount per year. The minimum payment made is £1. Payments are made to authors residing in any EU nation whose books are borrowed from UK public libraries. 

Under an agreement with the UK PLR Office, SOFIA pays UK PLR to French authors and publishers of books borrowed from UK libraries. Each year in June, SOFIA makes a return of the titles of books written by its members to the UK PLR Office that records them for forthcoming allocations. Settlement of PLR allocations takes place in February and SOFIA then pays the sums due to the relevant authors.

The total sum received in 2008 in respect of PLR for 2007 is €4036 for 132 beneficiaries, 57 of whom will receive more than €15.