Licensing Income Allocation
Purpose
HMSO has central responsibility for the licensing of Crown copyright material and most licensing is undertaken by our Licensing Team. Some departments, particularly government trading funds, have delegated authority from the Controller of HMSO to license the re-use of Crown copyright material that they originate. Any income generated is retained by these organisations.
HMSO is responsible for the arrangements for the collection and allocation of income that is generated by the licensing of Crown copyright material originated by departments and agencies that do not have delegated authority.
General Principles
Most licensing income that we collect will be allocated to the department or agency that originated the material. These payments are made twice a year in October and May. We send departments the payments together with a summary statement showing the licences that are covered, the material used and the sums generated by each licence. Where the total payment due to a department in any accounting period is less than £50 it is carried forward to the next accounting period. All sums, regardless of value, are paid at the year end for Resource Accounting purposes.
Exceptions to these arrangements:
- where there is insufficient analysis on statements that we receive from licence holders to identify the originating department. This most commonly arises in the context of central licensing schemes negotiated through collecting agencies such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA). Typically, in these cases material from a wide range of departments is re-used. Income over £500 from individual titles or series of titles is analysed and payments allocated to the department concerned; and/or
- where the department that originated the material no longer exists and there is no obvious successor department.
Where these circumstances arise, we retain the licensing income. Any income received, which is not related to Crown copyright re-use, is returned.