Guidance - Waiver of Crown copyright
Issued: February 2008
Introduction
Some Crown copyright material is waived. This means that although Crown copyright is asserted no formal licence is required to re-use. The waiver applies to specific categories of material where it is in Government's interests to encourage unrestricted use.
What is covered?
The following categories of material are covered by the waiver:
- Primary and secondary legislation
- Explanatory Notes to legislation
- Government press notices
- Published papers of a scientific, technical or medical nature
- Unpublished public records
- Government forms
- Government consultative documents
- Government documents featured on official departmental websites except where expressly indicated on the website in question
- Headline statistics
- Text of ministerial speeches and articles
- Typographical arrangement
Further details about the waiver of categories 6 - 11 are available in Chapter 5 of The Future Management of Crown Copyright (PDF - 203 kb).
What do I need to do?
You may re-use waiver material free of charge without requiring a formal licence provided that it is:
- acknowledged
- not used in a misleading way
- reproduced accurately and kept up to date