Copyright

Copyright is 'the right to prevent others copying or reproducing someone's work' (Copyright Licensing Agency, 2014) and it exists automatically on original works in any medium, where it can be shown judgement or skill has been used to create that original work. It protects the copyright owner (usually the author or creator of the work) and allows them to copy, distribute, rent or lend the work.

The NHS in England has a single copyright licence with the CLA (CLA Licence Plus) that covers all NHS staff in England. The licence 'provides blanket cover, so staff don’t have to seek permission from copyright owners each time they copy, reuse or share content from publications at work' (CLA, 2021). Find out more: https://www.cla.co.uk/nhs-england-licence

Limited copying rights are available to all private individuals under the terms of 'Fair Dealing' legislation: read more to find out about permissible copying under the terms of Fair Dealing. However, NHS employees have additional rights for work-related copying under the terms of the CLA Licence held by the NHS. This page summaries the terms of the current licence sets out how you can and and how you can't make use of someone else's copyright protected work and advises on use of electronic resources.

The CLA NHS Licence

Copyright in the NHS in England is covered by a blanket licence with the Copyright Licencing Agency (CLA). NHS employees and other authorised persons, including students on placement and contractors, are all covered by this licence for copying for non-commercial, internal NHS purposes only. The licence permits photocopying, scanning and copying of print and digital content under the terms set out below. Please note: eJournals and other online resources are covered by separate eLicences and are not covered by the CLA Licence.

We recommend that you consult the CLA website documents for full guidance on the terms of the CLA Licence for the NHS in England: https://www.cla.co.uk/nhs-england-licence.

Who is covered by the CLA NHS England licence?

All NHS staff, agency staff, students on placement, general practitioners and others employed by or contracted to the NHS, individuals providing consultancy services to the NHS and members of the public known as ‘non-executive members’ who sit on a Designated Committee can make and receive paper copies.
Digital copies can be made by the same individuals, provided that they are permitted by the NHS to have access to NHSnet or other internal email system via a secure login process which verifies their authority. Read the full terms.
Patients and carers or guardians of patients may also be provided with a single Paper Copy in connection with their treatment and/or condition. (CLA, 2014).

Permitted uses of copied materials

Copies can be used for internal, non-commercial purposes such as:

internal training and teaching sessions (see further notes on journal clubs below)
sharing information with colleagues
research and development
providing patients and carers with information.

What can be copied or scanned?

Under the terms of the NHS CLA Licence you may copy or scan:

items that are owned or subscribed to by the NHS (but see notes below on excluded works and ejournals), and
non-owned items where a copyright fee has been paid, e.g. to the British Library (see further notes below on copyright cleared articles).
please note: digital copies may not be edited or manipulated in any way and may not be stored on a central server or systematically indexed with the intention of creating an electronic library or corporate information resource.

Items that may be copied include books, print journals, magazines, law reports, abstracts and letters pages. The licence also includes the copying of artistic works, such as photographs, illustrations, diagrams and graphics, where they are contained within the publication being copied. To see which countries' publications are covered, see the list of International Territories. (CLA, 2014)

Under the terms of the NHS CLA Licence you may not copy or scan:

'excluded works': a list of these can be found on the CLA website
personal journal subscriptions: you may not copy from a colleague's personal subscription unless the employee permanently donates the copy to your organisation
you may not copy a copy
the ejournals, ebooks and databases accessible to all NHS staff in England via the NICE website: these are excluded from the NHS CLA licence. However, they can be copied or scanned under the terms of eLicences held with individual publishers. In general terms this means that each person who requires a copy of an article must download it and print it themselves; however we recommend you check individual eLicence terms. Please contact us for help with this.
other ejournals: some publishers have opted to allow their digital publications to be copied under the NHS CLA Licence: we recommend that you use the CLA Title Search Function to find out which titles can be copied and the terms that apply.
For digital material published outside the UK you will need to refer to the list of International Territories.

How much can I copy or scan?

On each occasion you may copy:

a single chapter of a book
up to two articles from a single issue of a journal
where a print periodical issue or a substantial part of it is dedicated to a particular theme, any number of articles dealing with that particular theme may be copied.

Within these limits you may also make multiple copies and copies of copies.

Copying by library staff and copyright on items received by interlibrary loan

NHS and other non-commercial ('prescribed') libraries have the right under 'Library Privilege' legislation to make copies for library users and to request copies from other libraries, provided certain conditions are met:

a copy of the same material has not previously been supplied to the same library user
it is for research or private study
the requester is not aware that another person is requesting the same material
an electronic or paper declaration has been received.

Copies of articles received through our interlibrary loan service (print or electronic) are supplied under the terms of Library Privilege and will be subject to the conditions set out in the covering email or note. Print copies can be kept but not copied. Electronic articles must be printed and then deleted, although the British Library now permits recipients to view a downloaded article on the same computer for up to three years and to print the article once.

Please note: if you require a copy for commercial purposes, if you require more than one copy of a single article that is not held in our print collection or if you want to circulate printed copies of an article you may need a copyright cleared copy of an article (see also our notes below on supplying articles to members of journal clubs below). Contact us to discuss your requirements.

Multiple copies for journal clubs

Journal club members each require a copy of the same article at the same time. There are several ways to obtain this within copyright legislation:

Items from our own print journal stock may be copied multiple times (one copy per person) for the purposes of group work
It is generally permissible to distribute electronic resources by sending a copy of the article web address (URL) to each individual to download separately and print their own copy. Check the eLicence terms
www.cla.co.uk/checkpermissionsItems obtained from other NHS libraries (i.e. via our inter-library loan service) are subject to library privilege conditions (see above) and so cannot be copied or distributed to colleagues, unless covered by the terms of the CLA Licence: click here to check permissions of all journals
Items obtained from the British Library may not be copied, unless you pay the copyright fee. This must be paid at the time of ordering. Please contact us if you require a copyright cleared copy of an article.
Items from personal subscriptions may not be copied under the terms of the NHS CLA licence, unless the subscriber permanently donates the copy to the organisation (library).

It is your responsibility to ascertain the provenance of the articles you obtain for journal clubs and adhere to copyright guidance accordingly. Library staff will be able to help you identify the source of any articles you request. Contact us to find out more or read about our Journal Club Support Service.

Stay within the law

For one-to-one advice and support on ensuring your own reports, publications and presentations stay within the law, sign up for 'Referencing your Work': our in-house course that introduces the main referencing formats for citing and referencing papers which you have used in support of your own writing and explains why it is important to reference your work correctly.

Looking for an image to use in a report or presentation? Check out our list of sources of free to use images.