Government of Wales Act 2006

Copyright implications

The Government of Wales Act 2006 or GOWA will modify the copyright provisions relating to the National Assembly for Wales set out in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Full details are set out in Schedule 10 (consequential amendments) and Schedule 12 (repeals) of the GOWA. At present, under the Government of Wales Act 1998, the National Assembly for Wales is a single corporate body which exercises its functions on behalf of the Crown. Therefore all material produced by the current Assembly is protected by Crown copyright.

Under GOWA 2006, there will be a separate legislature and executive, together with the National Assembly for Wales Commission that will provide property, staff and services to the new Assembly. Post separation, which will occur following the Assembly elections in May, neither the new Assembly nor the Commission will be Crown bodies and therefore material produced by them will not be protected by Crown copyright.

Instead, parliamentary copyright will be applied with modifications to works produced by or under the direction or control of the National Assembly for Wales, by an Order under Section 165 (7) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988. In this way, works of the National Assembly for Wales will be protected by copyright in the same way as works of the Scottish Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Ownership of the copyright in works produced by the National Assembly for Wales will reside with the National Assembly for Wales Commission, which will be free to choose whether to manage the licensing arrangements itself, arrange a service agreement with the Office of Public Sector Information (as the Scottish Parliament have done) or appoint another party to do so. The other practical effect of these changes is that the term of protection for works covered will reduce, in most cases, from 125 years to 50 years.