National Clinical Content Repository (Copyright Licensing Service)

Some of the content that NHS England use in our documents and processes is protected by copyright law. This includes some of the clinical assessment tools and outcome measures used for collection in our national data sets.

Every organisation that wants to use them must be granted permission.

To reduce the cost and burden of obtaining permissions to use these tools, NHS England operates the Copyright Licensing Service to do this work on your behalf. The service maintains a library of tools available for use across health and social care.

View our library.

Further details on our processes can be found below.

Translations into the following languages are now available for most of the IAPT tools:

Use the request process to obtain copies.

Organisations involved in delivering and improving health and social care in the UK can apply to us for licences. This includes suppliers who provide services or software.

If you're unsure if your organisation qualifies please email [email protected]. 

Before you can apply for any licences you must first register your organisation.

If you would like to check if your organisation is already registered please complete our Registration check form. An organisation only needs to be registered with us once to be covered by the law.

To register:

1. Read and fully understand the Sub-Licence General Terms Agreement. These are the legal conditions that you will be accepting on behalf of your organisation.
2. Complete page 1 of the form, making sure you read the definitions of applicant type on page 2 (section C) carefully. If you intend to use our content to provide care directly to clients or patients, you are an end-user. If you intend to include our content in a service provided to a third party, you are a service provider.
3. Make sure the applicant is someone senior enough in your organisation, able to enter into a binding legal agreement with NHS England (director-level or head of service, for example).
4. Instructions on how to register additional authorised users will be sent to you in the registration documentation.
5. The form must contain the applicant’s own email address and not that of an assistant or deputy.
6. Obtain the applicant's signature in wet ink at 'By' in the Licensee section on page 8.
7. If signature in wet ink is not possible, please follow these instructions. 
8. Email the completed form to [email protected] with the subject 'New Registration Request' and the name of your organisation.
9. Please ensure that all 8 pages of the form are returned.
10. The form must be emailed from the applicant’s own mailbox – the legal agreement must be communicated directly with the applicant.
11. A confirmation email should be received indicating that your application is being processed. If you do not receive an email, please contact us by emailing [email protected] to confirm we have received it. 

Please note: the £1 fee mentioned in the documentation is a nominal fee and no payment should be made.

After you send the form:

• an authorised signatory from NHS England will sign and date the agreement to make it binding
• a copy will be sent for your records, together with a registration letter explaining our processes and how to request sub-licences
• we will send your organisation's unique Licensing Service ID - you must keep this safe as it's needed to request specific sub-licences for the content on our library
• we will ask you for details of who you wish to request sub-licences within your organisation (authorised users). 

Registrations can be refused or delayed if you do not follow the instructions above carefully.

After registering with the Copyright Licensing Service any approved users can apply for licences by completing a Content Request form.

Your organisation's unique Licensing Service ID, supplied when registering with us, will be required.

Your organisation must adhere to the legal terms of the agreements, together with any specific conditions that the copyright owner has requested.

These will be sent to you when you request the licences and must be read thoroughly. They do not need to be signed and returned.

Your application for licences for individual tools may be refused and we will always tell you why. If this happens we will help you contact the copyright owner directly.

If you have any questions or need any help please address them directly to [email protected].

We are unable to provide a telephone enquiry service but emails are processed as quickly as possible.

Due to the nature of the service we must have a detailed audit trail of all communications available at all times so we rely on email.

Whether you obtain content through the Copyright Licensing Service or an alternative route, you are responsible for ensuring that you act in accordance with the law at all times. You must satisfy yourself on the legality surrounding your intended use of any content (for example, by contacting the copyright owner directly, conducting investigations or taking independent legal advice).

It's your responsibility to continually assess the applicability of, and then comply with, all relevant laws, regulations and good industry practice relating to the content or its use, including but not limited to all applicable laws, regulations and good industry practice in relation to medical devices and data protection.

Further information on medical devices can be found on the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency website, and in relation to software as a medical device in particular the Medical Device Regulation page on GOV.UK.

Further information on data protection issues can be found on the Information Commissioner's website.