Environment Agency - Home

When/how to get a licence

The type of licence we would issue depends on the following factors.

What is your intended use?

Your licence will be based on your use of our data. In order to determine the relevant licence conditions, we will need to ascertain whether your use will be

  • commercial or non-commercial
  • internal or external

These terms are explained on our Guiding Principles page.

  • Our guiding principles

    Our policy and approach to licensing re-use of our information have been developed in accordance with four guiding principles.

Types of licence

When we provide you with information, your usage will be governed by one of the following:

  1. Copyright Statement and Disclaimer 
  2. Standard Notice, which grants basic permission rights regardless of the particular request.
  3. Special licence for non-commercial use
  4. Special Licence for commercial use
  5. Value Added Reseller Licences; for organisations licensed to re-supply our information to third parties on a commercial basis with added value through additional data, facilities or services.

When we may refuse re-use

We may refuse to issue a re-use licence for the reasons set out below:

  • Where we do not have permission from the owners of third party IPR.
  • Where to do so would be in breach of legislation or other rules of law.
  • Where an applicant’s request for access to the data has been refused under exemptions/exceptions in Freedom of Information (FOI) / Environmental Information Regulations (EIR), and we therefore do not reach the stage of considering usage rights.
  • Where we have decided that to license the information would adversely impact on the Environment Agency.
  • Where we have decided that, even if the data has been formally approved for public access, that to license a particular re-use would not be consistent with our policy, and in particular represents a risk of adverse impact on the Environment Agency
  • Where we believe that commercial external supplies do not add value and as a result we believe that the practical risks inherent in:


    a) data management, and in particular version control of data sets;
    b) data support service (that is, the service we provide in answering further enquiries), and the consequent impact on that service;

outweigh the potential benefits in increased dissemination of our data.