Update Friday 14 June: The British Library has confirmed that all PLR systems are online once again. Exisiting members can check their accounts and new members can register for PLR. Members are also able to register new titles before the end-of-year deadline of 30 June.
Update Friday 22 March: The British Library has today confirmed that all payments for the UK PLR year 2022/23 have been made and should be arriving in bank accounts in three working days.
The PLR online services are still unavailable, please see our other updates to find out how you can register new titles for PLR.
Update Monday 26 February: We are pleased to hear that members are receiving their delayed UK PLR payments for the year 2022/23.
We receieved the following message from the British Library on Monday 26 February:
We’re pleased to let you know that we will shortly be distributing statements for UK PLR year 2022/23. If you normally receive your statement in the post, it should be with you in the next few days. Otherwise, as PLR online accounts remain unavailable, we’ll email a statement to you shortly. This will come from the same email address, plrservices@mail.plr.bl.uk, but please check your spam folder if you don’t receive this.
We apologise for the delay in getting your statement out to you. This disruption was caused by a major technology outage following a cyber-attack on the British Library. We’re working to restore online PLR accounts and resume normal services as soon as we can.
Unfortunately, PLR online accounts are currently unavailable to amend your personal details or register books. We’re working hard to reinstate access before the end of the PLR year on 30 June. In the meantime you can contact us and we’ll advise you on the next steps to amend your details. You can also download our form to register new titles, which can be emailed or posted to us once completed.
Please note, due to the current circumstances, you will be required to complete additional security checks – including verification of your identity and postal address – before we can make changes to your personal information. This is to help protect your account from potential fraudulent activity.
Update Monday 5 February: We have received the following information from the British Library regarding their holding of PLR users’ bank details:
While we can confirm that the British Library does hold and process the bank details of PLR users as part of the PLR payment process, I can also reassure you that both the PLR system itself (which contains the bank details used for PLR author payments) and the finance system used to make the PLR payments remain secure and were unaffected by the attack. The current lack of access to the PLR system was caused by the destruction of supporting infrastructure elsewhere in our network, and not by compromise of the PLR system itself.
I can also confirm that the compromised CRM system that potentially disclosed the contact details of PLR users did not contain any bank details.
There is therefore currently no evidence that any PLR bank details were compromised in the attack. However, it is important to add that we will not be able to confirm this with 100% certainty until forensic analysis of all of our compromised data, systems, and network is finished. As previously mentioned, this immensely complicated task is likely to take several more months to complete. In the event that any further sensitive personal data relating to a PLR author were to discovered as part of this investigation we would of course take immediate steps to notify the individual concerned, and offer any additional advice that might be required.
Update Thursday 1 February: We have been provided with a timeline for PLR payments by the British Library.
PLR payment schedule for the 2023 loans:
- Irish statements distributed week commencing 29 January 2024
- Irish payments made between 19 February – 1 March 2024
- UK statements distributed week commencing 26 February 2024
- UK payments made between 18 – 29 March 2024.
PLR registration for next year should be completed by 30 June.
Update Tuesday 9 January: In light of articles published in the Guardian and the Bookseller that have caused concern among authors about the likelihood of PLR payments being made on time, we have spoken again with the British Library, who have been reassuring and communicative. They are well aware of the concerns of authors and of their reliance on statutory PLR as an important element of their earnings. The BL will publish their timeline for action towards the end of the month. The BL confirmed to us that, although payments are likely to be made a few weeks later than in previous years, they are doing everything they can to ensure payments are made by the statutory deadline of the end of this financial year. We will continue to monitor this issue and keep closely in touch with the BL and will inform members of any updates.
The BL confirmed to us that they have all the data they need to make payments. They still have the necessary payment details for authors and there is no indication that sensitive documents used in the PLR registration process such as copies of passports or identity documents have been copied. We would remind you again that you should also be particularly alert for phishing emails and scam phone calls or text messages. Any requests for financial or personal information should be treated with the utmost caution – if in doubt, check with the BL or the SoA.
PLR is an author’s right and extremely important to our members. We fought alongside other trade organisations for PLR to be established in the 70s and more recently for it to be extended to ebooks. We continue to push for the fund to be increased and for PLR to be extended to volunteer, school and author libraries.
CWIG Committee Chair and Management Committee member Abie Longstaff spoke on Front Row about the importance of the payments. The segment begins at 16:51 minutes. She said:
For authors, it’s massively important and sometimes it can add up to more than your royalties. […] It’s wonderful that we get something from PLR each year, but this is our earnings – it’s part of what we deserve to get because it’s linked to the copyright in our books. It’s the way that government pays us – instead of giving us a royalty, they pay us this PLR money.
19 December 2023
Many members will have received notification from the British Library about the cyber attack on its data on 28 October. We are in touch with the PLR team but we do not have any information over and above what has already been shared. We are confident that the British Library is doing everything it can to resolve what is a very complex situation as quickly and as safely as possible.
It seems that what has been hacked includes the name, postal address and email address of many of those who are registered for PLR. The British Library says that ‘there is currently no evidence that copies of passports or other identity documents used during PLR registration were compromised in the attack’.
The guidance offered by the British Library is:
Change any password on other online services that you may have used on our systems.
The NCSC provides guidance on staying safe online, as well as specific guidance for individuals who may have been impacted by a data breach.
Over the coming months you should also be particularly alert for phishing emails and scam phone calls or text messages. The NCSC also offers advice on how to spot these types of attack.
The BL adds that if you have any questions you can email plrauthorservices@bl.uk, or the British Library’s Data Protection Officer at data.governance@bl.uk.
We have asked the British Library to share with us any useful information we can in turn pass on to members.
Another specific query which has arisen is from members who rely on their PLR income to help meet their tax bill. They are understandably anxious to know when the delayed payments are likely to happen. Again, we have asked the British Library for further information. If you find yourself in financial need, please see https://societyofauthors.org/grants/grants-writers-in-need/.
We are meeting with the British Library in January and will keep members updated.
Communication has been awful from the start. I do feel more should have been done, and should be done from now on, to keep those of us informed who are still being badly affected by this.
I’ve been consistently denied access to register new books. Consequently, my book The King’s Pants, No 2 on the bestseller lists, 30000 copies sold in month prior to Coronation, has received no PLR. Is there a compensation scheme? Discuss. Thank you. Nicholas Allan
Hi Nicholas, our advice would be to contact the British Library directly. Although PLR online accounts are still unavailable due to the cyber attack, you can register new titles by downloading a form and submitting that to the British Library via email or post. The best email to contact for these issues is plrauthorservices@bl.uk.
Thank you for the PLR update. Very reassuring and helpful.
I am not confident that the British Library has the skill or expertise to keep our data safe. PLR is a new venture for them. It should be handled by a financial institution with expertise in making many small payments. Not of course the Post Office!