We are committed to making the information published by the Scottish Parliament open and accessible and you are encouraged to use and re-use the information that is available under this Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence freely and flexibly with only a few conditions.
Published material may be reproduced without formal permission subject to the conditions of the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence. Where any material is republished or copied to others or included in any application, the source of the material must be acknowledged by including an attribution statement and where possible by providing a link to the Scottish Parliament Licence. You can use the following statement to attribute the source of the material you are using:
"Contains information licensed under the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence".
Please note that this licence does not allow you to use any material in a way that suggests any official status or that the SPCB endorses you or your use of the information.
This licence does not allow you to use published material provided in any format in connection with party political purposes or in connection with advertising endorsement.
The Scottish Parliament Corporate Identity, comprising the badge and/or the graphic device consisting of the words "The Scottish Parliament" in English and Gaelic, is the property of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) and cannot be reproduced without its specific prior approval. This requirement extends to other logos including for example the Festival of Politics Logo which cannot be reproduced without prior approval from the SPCB. For further information on the use of the Corporate Identity please contact corporateidentity@parliament.scot
Any content made available by a feed is covered by the Scottish Parliament Copyright Licence and users must acknowledge the SPCB as the source of any content displayed.
Linking to Scottish Parliament websites and social media
The SPCB is content for users to establish hypertext links to any of our sites, as long as the sites appear in their normal form (for example, they must not appear within the host’s own frames).
Contributors to any forums are responsible for what they post and should ensure that what they post is covered either by an open licence or is being used with the consent of the copyright holder.
Any enquiries regarding the Scottish Parliament copyright licence should be made to:
Robin Davidson, Head of Information Governance
Email: Robin.Davidson@parliament.scot
Telephone: 0131 348 5281
You are encouraged to use and re-use the information available under this licence freely and flexibly, with only a few conditions.
Use of copyright and database right material expressly made available under this licence (the ‘information’) indicates your acceptance of the terms and conditions below.
The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) grants you a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, non-exclusive licence to use the information, subject to the conditions below.
This licence does not affect your freedom under fair dealing or fair use or any other copyright or database right exceptions and limitations.
You are free to:
If you do any of the above, you must:
These are important conditions of this licence and if you fail to comply with them the rights granted to you under this licence, or any similar licence granted by the SPCB, will end automatically.
This licence does not cover:
This licence does not grant you any right to use the information in a way that suggests any official status or that the SPCB endorses you or your use of the information. In particular, specific terms and conditions relate to the reuse of downloadable files such as images and video footage which states that they are:
The information is licensed ‘as is’ and the SPCB excludes all representations, warranties, obligations and liabilities in relation to the Information to the maximum extent permitted by law. The SPCB is not liable for any errors or omissions in the information and shall not be liable for any loss, injury or damage of any kind caused by its use and does not guarantee the continued supply of the Information.
This licence is governed by the laws of the jurisdiction in which the Information Provider has its principal place of business, unless otherwise specified by the Information Provider.
In this licence, the terms below have the following meanings:
The Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) has developed the Open Government Licence as a tool to enable information providers in the public sector to license the use and re-use of their Information under a common open licence. The Controller invites public sector bodies owning their own copyright and database rights to permit the use of their Information under this licence.
The Controller of HMSO has authority to license information subject to copyright and database right owned by the Crown. The extent of the Controller’s offer to license this information under the terms of this licence is set out in the UK Government Licensing Framework.
This Scottish Parliament Licence is aligned with OGLv3.0
The Controller of HMSO may, from time to time, issue new versions of the Open Government Licence. If you are already using Information under a previous version of the Open Government Licence, the terms of that licence will continue to apply.
Further context, best practice and guidance can be found in the UK Government Licensing Framework section on The National Archives website.
The Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) complies with the requirements of the Re-use of Public Sector Information (Amendment) Regulations 2015 by:
The Re-use (Amendment) Regulations 2015 require public bodies to define their “public task” setting out the body’s core role and functions.
The Scottish Parliament was established under the Scotland Act 1998 and its main functions are:
The Re-use (Amendment) Regulations 2015 require public bodies to provide an asset register. An information asset is information that a public body produces, holds or disseminates that is of interest or value to itself and potentially to re-users and an information asset register is a register of these information assets.
The SPCB is responsible for ensuring that the Parliament is provided with the property, staff and services required for the Parliament’s purpose. To carry out these functions the SPCB considers and makes decisions on a wide range of issues to do with the running of the Parliament including:
It is impractical to make a distinction between the information held by the Scottish Parliament and the SPCB and so the information covered by our public task refers to both the Scottish Parliament and the SPCB.