Crown copyright information
The CLA licence covers Crown Copyright material.
Central Government
It is often assumed that all material published by central government departments is Crown copyright and as such can be copied without limit or need for permission. Please note the following:
- central government employees wishing to copy beyond allowed employee limits can acquire a licence from HMSO.
- some government departments publish material 'independently' and permission can be obtained through a CLA licence (if it is a mandating publisher) or directly from the publisher.
- the Stationery Office (tSO) has publisher rights in a small number of government publications and permission can be obtained through a CLA licence or directly from tSO.
The Stationery Office
tSO publishes many titles on behalf of central government. All works published on behalf of government departments are subject to Crown copyright, unless that department has made a separate arrangement to retain its copyright with HMSO. Some of the titles published by tSO have shared copyright. The author (or government department) has retained copyright in the material while tSO retains the copyright in the typographical arrangement. tSO also publishes its own titles as a commercial publisher. These publications state to whom applications for reproduction should be made.
Copyright permission
HMSO and official publishers such as tSO have mandated CLA to include a wide range of works under the licence. CLA licences therefore provide a convenient, lawful and cheap mechanism for you to copy a wide range of government information.
