WIREDGOV

Building on the success of the Open Government Licence, The National Archives has extended the scope of its licensing policy, encouraging and enabling even easier re-use of a wider range of public sector information.

The UK Government Licensing Framework (UKGLF), the policy and legal framework for the re-use of public sector information, now offers a growing portfolio of licences and guidance to meet the diverse needs and requirements of both public sector information providers and re-user communities.

Transparency and open data

Oliver Morley, Chief Executive and Keeper, The National Archives said: 'The developments to the licensing framework are central to supporting government's emerging policy on transparency and open data. It's now more comprehensive, covers more public sector information and can flexibly incorporate new licensing options as they become available. The sum of our efforts means that more public sector information will become open for re-use, enhancing democracy and potentially benefitting the UK's economy.'

The extended framework has been flexibly designed to incorporate further licensing options as they are developed. Over the coming months, further licences will become available. A Developer Licence is being designed and is aimed specifically at developers so that they have an opportunity to sample a dataset before entering into a commercial licensing agreement. Other parts of the public sector, including the UK Parliament are developing licence models based on OGL principles.

Latest enhancements of the UK Government Licensing Framework

• Launch of a new machine readable licence for re-using information free of charge for non-commercial purposes
• Establishes the UKGLF as the licensing framework for UK compliance with the INSPIRE Directive (and UK Regulations). It is endorsed by the UK Location Council which oversees the delivery of the UK strategy on INSPIRE 
• Provides guidance on licensing software and source codes using existing Open Source Licences 
• Provides clarity on re-using third party information and data
• Provides detailed licensing guidance covering cases where charges for re-use are made

View the UK Government Licensing Framework.