Office of Public Sector Information
(1) The BBC may make a scheme or schemes providing for the transfer to any person or persons of such property, rights and liabilities of the BBC as are specified in, or determined in accordance with the scheme, being property, rights and liabilities which, immediately before the day on which the scheme comes into force, subsist for the purposes of or in connection with or are otherwise attributable to the BBC transmission network.
(2) In subsection (1) “the BBC transmission network” means so much of the undertaking of the BBC as is concerned with the provision of broadcasting transmission services or services related to those services.
(3) In this Part “transfer scheme” means a scheme made under subsection (1).
(4) Schedule 5 shall have effect with respect to transfer schemes.
(1) A transfer scheme shall not take effect unless it is approved by the Secretary of State; and where such a scheme is submitted to the Secretary of State for his approval, he may modify the scheme before approving it.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), the Secretary of State shall not approve a transfer scheme containing any provision in accordance with which any person other than a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BBC becomes entitled or subject to any property, rights and liabilities unless it appears to the Secretary of State that the person has consented to the provisions of the scheme so far as they relate to him.
(3) Subsection (2) shall not require the consent of any person to so much of a transfer scheme as—
(a) relates to property, rights or liabilities to which that person is already entitled or subject, and
(b) appears to the Secretary of State to be made for purposes that are no more than supplemental or incidental to the other provisions of the scheme.
(4) Before—
(a) declining to approve a transfer scheme, or
(b) modifying such a scheme,
the Secretary of State shall consult the BBC and every person who is a transferee under the scheme.
(5) It shall be the duty of the BBC and every person who is a transferee under a transfer scheme to provide the Secretary of State with all such information and other assistance as he may reasonably require for the purposes of, or in connection with, the exercise of any power conferred on him by this paragraph.
(6) In this section “wholly-owned subsidiary” has the meaning given by section 736 of the [1985 c. 6.] Companies Act 1985.
(1) The BBC may enter into any such agreement with another person as they think fit for the purpose of accepting or imposing contractual obligations with respect to, or to anything connected with, the manner in which their powers by virtue of section 131 are to be exercised.
(2) Any agreement may, in particular, provide for the making of payments, or the issue of shares or securities, to the BBC (by way of consideration or otherwise) in respect of anything created or transferred in accordance with a transfer scheme.
(3) The consent of the Secretary of State shall be required for the making by the BBC of an agreement under this section.
Schedule 6 (which makes provision about the accounts etc. of wholly-owned subsidiaries of the BBC to which any property, rights or liabilities are transferred in accordance with a transfer scheme) shall have effect.
Schedule 7 (which makes provision about tax in connection with transfer schemes) shall have effect.
Schedule 8 (which makes amendments of the 1990 Act relating to the regulation by the Independent Television Commission and the Radio Authority of services provided by bodies corporate in which the BBC have an interest) shall have effect.
(1) Any provision in an agreement is void in so far as it purports to prohibit or restrict relevant dealing with a broadcast or cable programme in any circumstances where by virtue of section 30(2) of the [1988 c. 48.] Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (fair dealing for the purpose of reporting current events) copyright in the broadcast or cable programme is not infringed.
(2) In subsection (1)—
(a) “relevant dealing”, in relation to a broadcast or cable programme, means dealing by including visual images taken from it in another broadcast or cable programme, and
(b) “broadcast” and “cable programme” have the same meaning as in Part I of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Schedule 9 (which contains amendments of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 relating to broadcasts included in cable programme services) shall have effect.
(1) After section 135G of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 there is inserted—
(1) The Secretary of State may by order, subject to such transitional provision as appears to him to be appropriate, amend sections 135A to 135G so as—
(a) to include in any reference to sound recordings any works of a description specified in the order; or
(b) to exclude from any reference to a broadcast or cable programme service any broadcast or cable programme service of a description so specified.
(2) An order shall be made by statutory instrument; and no order shall be made unless a draft of it has been laid before and approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.”
(2) After section 151 of that Act there is inserted—
(1) Any of the following, namely—
(a) a direction under section 123(3) so far as relating to a licence for broadcasting a work or including a work in a cable programme service;
(b) a direction under section 128(3) so far as so relating;
(c) an order under section 135D(1); and
(d) an order under section 135F confirming or varying an order under section 135D(1),
may award simple interest at such rate and for such period, beginning not earlier than the relevant date and ending not later than the date of the order, as the Copyright Tribunal thinks reasonable in the circumstances.
(2) In this section “the relevant date” means—
(a) in relation to a direction under section 123(3), the date on which the reference was made;
(b) in relation to a direction under section 128(3), the date on which the reference or application was made;
(c) in relation to an order section 135D(1), the date on which the first payment under section 135C(2) became due; and
(d) in relation to an order under section 135F, the date on which the application was made.”
(3) Subsection (2) does not apply in any case where the reference or application to the Copyright Tribunal was or is made before the commencement of this section.
(1) In section 297A of the [1988 c. 48.] Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (unauthorised decoders), for subsection (1) there is substituted—
“(1) A person who makes, imports, sells or lets for hire, offers or exposes for sale or hire, or advertises for sale or hire, any unauthorised decoder shall be guilty of an offence and liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine not exceeding the statutory maximum;
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or to a fine, or to both.”
(2) The amendment made by subsection (1) shall not apply to any offence committed before the commencement of this section.
In section 298 of the [1988 c. 48.] Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (apparatus, &c for unauthorised reception of transmissions), in subsection (2)(a), after “hire” there is inserted “, offers or exposes for sale or hire, or advertises for sale or hire,”.
Broadcasting Act 1996