What you need to apply for a licence
If you want to perform computational analysis on Find Case Law records, you'll need to apply for a licence. Here's what the application involves and how to prepare.
Before you start
Important: You cannot save your application partway through. You will need to complete your application in one session.
Make sure you have all the information you need before you begin.
You do not need to apply for a licence if your re-use is already covered under the Open Justice Licence.
The Open Justice Licence covers most uses, including commercial use. You only need to apply if you want to perform computational analysis.
The application form
There is one application form to apply to perform computational analysis across Find Case Law records. It is made up of 6 main sections with 29 questions in total.
You will need to respond to all the questions. There is no way to save the application partway through.
The 6 sections
1. The details of the person responsible for the licence
They should be someone who is senior in your organisation and will be responsible for licence application and compliance. They will need to be someone we can talk to if we have questions about the application.
Contact
2. The details of your organisation
We will ask you information about your organisation:
- legal name of your organisation
- what type of organisation is it (for example, private limited company or registered charity)
Responses to this section may be published in the future.
Organisation details
3. The purpose of your re–use
Your statement should summarise:
- the purpose and anticipated outcomes of your product or service
- the individuals or communities you intend to serve
- the methodologies or activities you will use to analyse the records
You should aim for no more than 150 words in your statement.
Responses to this section may be published in the future, for example, if we receive a freedom of information request.
Purpose and Activities
4. A public statement
We will ask you to write a brief public statement that summarises the reasons why you want to perform computational analysis. This statement should include:
- purpose and anticipated outcomes
- individuals or communities served
- methodologies or activities this will involve
You should aim for no more than 150 words in your public statement.
Responses to this section may be published in the future.
Public statement
5. Details of your working practices and governance
We will ask you a series of questions to understand how you will work with the data from these records. These will include questions about your methodology and ethical governance.
Working practices
6. Details of risks you have identified against the nine principles
In 2023 the Ministry of Justice established nine principles to guide our decision making process on applications to conduct computational analysis across the Find Case Law collection.
We will ask you to accept these as licence terms and to prepare a statement about any risks you have identified for each of these principles.
It's important that you respond to each principle in turn. Responses that do not address each of the nine principles may experience delays and requests for further information.
The nine principles are:
- Dignity of the court
- Independence of the court
- Appropriate scrutiny
- Anti-discriminatory harm
- Anti-bias
- Personal Privacy
- Discoverability
- Algorithmic transparency
- Accurate data representation
Please read the information carefully. If you are unsure how to answer this question you can contact the licensing department for further information.
Nine Principles
Additional comments
There will be space at the end of the application for any additional comments you wish to make.
Help to prepare
To help you prepare, you can download a full list of the 29 questions we will ask you as a Microsoft Word document.
Ready to apply?
It may take a few weeks until you receive a decision on your application. You can read more about the approval process on the Licence application process page.
If you have any questions about licensing, please email the Licensing Department: caselawlicence@nationalarchives.gov.uk