National Clinical Content Repository (Copyright Licensing Service)
The National Clinical Content Repository (NCCR) is a library operated by the NHS England Copyright Licensing Service. It provides legal permission to use copyrighted assessments and scales, some of which are contained within our data-sets.
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 to submit data to us 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.
Further details on our processes can be found below.
How to request access to use our content
There are 3 stages to the process:
- Your organisation must register.
- You must register individually.
- Each individual piece of content must be requested.
How to register with the Copyright Licensing Service
Organisations involved in delivering and improving health and/or social care in the UK can apply to us for licences. This covers a wide variety of organisations including 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 once for all its employees to be covered by the law.
One person will initially register with us on behalf of your organisation. Once registration is completed, additional users can be nominated to represent your organisation.
We DO NOT accept registrations by post. All registrations must be made electronically following the instructions below exactly.
To register:
- Open the Sub-Licence General Terms Agreement. This is the registration form and contains the legal conditions that you will be accepting on behalf of your organisation.
- The agreement is an electronic form and can be completed digitally or printed as required.
- Read and fully understand the contents of the form as it contains the legal conditions you will be accepting.
- 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.
- Make sure the applicant is someone senior enough in your organisation, able to enter into a binding legal agreement with NHS England.
- Instructions on how to register additional authorised users will be sent in the registration documentation.
- The form must contain the email address of the person signing the form and not that of an assistant, deputy, or generic mailbox.
- The form must be signed at 'By' in the Licensee section on page 8.
- Digital signature is acceptable, however, you must follow these instructions.
- Email the completed form to [email protected].
- Please ensure that all 8 pages of the form are returned.
- The form must be emailed from the email address of the person signing the form. The legal agreement will be created directly with that person.
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
- we will send your organisation's unique Licensing Service ID - you must keep this safe as it's needed to request specific content from our library
- we will ask you for details of who you wish to register within your organisation (authorised users).
Registrations can be refused or delayed if you do not follow the instructions above carefully.
How to request tools and measures
After registering with the Copyright Licensing Service, approved users can apply for licences by completing a Content Request form.
You must use your organisation's unique Licensing Service ID, supplied when registering with us. We now use an automated process which will reject your request if the exact Licensing Service ID provided to you is not used.
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.
Enquiries or questions
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.
Important notes
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.
Further information
Guidance notes on completing a request for content. Complete the online form with the help of the advice on this page.
This table lists copyrighted clinical assessment tools and outcome measures for use within health and social care, plus how to access them. Most are available via the Copyright Licensing Service.
Last edited: 11 February 2025 11:03 am