Re-use of public sector information policy

Information can be re-used without permission for reasons including non-commercial personal purposes, such as private study and for news reporting. In this instance a licence is not required.

WHBC may on occasions give written permission to re-use information without this permission being in a formal notice.

Where a licence is required the UK Government Licensing Framework (UKGLF) would be followed, using the following principles:

• Any terms used should be easy to understand.
• Information should be made available so that everybody can re-use it.
• Any terms imposed should be fair.
• Similar requests are handled consistently.
• Anyone who re-uses WHBC information acknowledges it as the owner.
• Details of how licences will be applied are published.

Whenever possible information will be made available for re-use free of charge, using the Open Government Licence (OGL). This licence permits re-use for both commercial and non-commercial purposes.

It is not appropriate to permit re-use using the OGL if the re-use is only to be permitted for non-commercial purposes. In this instance the information would be made available for re-use under a Non-Commercial Government Licence.

Sometimes WHBC will make a charge for re-use and make the information available under a Charged Licence. In this instance we will advise the customer at the time of request why this type of licence is necessary and the cost of the licence. The cost will be based on a reasonable rate of return for the re-use of the information.

Details and examples of all three licences are available in the UK Government Licensing Framework on the National Archives website.