NHS higher education copyright

This guidance is intended for library staff working in NHS and higher education library services in England and who handle requests from NHS England employed staff in either setting.

Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA)

Higher education licence

The higher education CLA Licence is used by the majority of universities in the UK. The Licence treats each university as a separate organisation, such as the licensed individuals are the staff and students of a specific university.

NHS licence

The NHS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland each has its own CLA Licence, however each Licence covers all the NHS organisations in that country, treating them as a single entity, such as the licensed users include everyone who works for the NHS in that country.

CLA Check Permissions tool

The CLA Check Permissions tool allows staff to find out how different formats of the content may be used, for example copied or scanned. You will need to select the relevant licence option from the drop down list on the search result screen before entering your query.

UK copyright legislation and "library privilege"

Under UK copyright legislation, any publicly accessible library may make single "library privilege" copies on behalf of the users of other not-for-profit libraries, provided the requester has supplied a declaration to confirm that:

• they have not previously been supplied with a copy
• the copy is required for non-commercial research or private study
• they won’t supply the copy to anyone else
• as far as they know, no one else is going to be asking for the same copy for the same purpose at the same time

These declarations do not need to be signed but should be written and recorded. A "tick box" confirmation on an online request form, or confirmation by email are acceptable.

Copies may be supplied digitally, from printed or electronic originals. Only a single copy of one article from an issue of a journal, or a "reasonable" proportion of any other published work is allowed.

The permission for not-for-profit libraries to share library privilege copies, in print or electronic format, cannot be limited by publisher or supplier contract.

However, never assume that university libraries will supply library privilege copies to NHS libraries, unless they are members of a reciprocal scheme where this has been agreed.

Publisher licences

NHS libraries generally do not need to refer separately to publishers' and suppliers' licences. The CLA acts on behalf of publishers, and the CLA Check Permissions tool covers copying permissions relating to both digital and print originals, of all items with an ISSN or ISBN. The standard NHS licence for electronic resources states that CLA Licences and UK copyright legislation should prevail, and as above, copyright legislation allows not-for-profit libraries to supply each other with library privilege copies from any copyright work.

For university libraries, publisher licences may prevail. These typically define who may have full access and who may have walk-in access, and whether walk-in access is restricted to viewing or allows fair dealing copying.

CLA licences and "crossover"

In general, individuals may only make or share copies with others covered by the same licence as them – whether university or NHS – from originals they own.

In higher education, this means owned by the individual university. In the NHS, this means owned by any NHS organisation in England.

So in general, university staff and students may only make or share copies under their university’s CLA Licence, with others covered by that university’s CLA Licence, from originals owned by that university.

Similarly, NHS staff in England, including library staff, may only make or share copies under the terms of the NHS CLA Licence, with others covered by that Licence, from originals owned by or subscribed to by the NHS in England.

However, the NHS CLA licences have some additional features to help with NHS to higher education crossover scenarios.

NHS to higher education crossover scenarios

If you have any queries or suggestions for improving the guidance, please contact the NHS Copyright First Responders at [email protected].