T 71 licensing agreement - Framework Licence Agreement Clause 16.1

Request

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, and further to the internal review decision issued to me on 20 May 2026 under reference CAS-322451-M6D0Q2, in which The National Archives formally acknowledged that a significant proportion of the 2007 Licensing Agreement was unlawfully withheld, I write to request one specific provision of the Framework Licence Agreement dated 20 December 2017 which remains undisclosed.

Addendum 011 to the Framework Licence Agreement dated 20 December 2017, signed 8 February 2023 between Ancestry Ireland Unlimited Company and The National Archives, states at clause 5 that in the event of a conflict between the OGL and the Agreement, the OGL shall prevail except that clause 16.1 of the Agreement shall apply in respect of the Rights granted in relation to Collection T71. Clause 16.1 is therefore the operative provision governing the rights granted in relation to the Office of Registry of Colonial Slaves and Slave Compensation Commission Records 1812-1851 — documenting 780,993 enslaved people. It has never been disclosed.

The National Archives has repeatedly stated that the Open Government Licence guarantees free and perpetual public access to Collection T71. Clause 16.1 explicitly overrides that guarantee in respect of T71 rights. The internal review decision of 20 May 2026 acknowledged that The National Archives' previous application of section 43(2) to the 2007 Licensing Agreement was wrong in significant proportion and that the public interest test conducted in January 2026 rested on a demonstrably false factual premise. That concession applies with equal force to any commercial confidentiality claim over the fundamental legal architecture of the current arrangement.

The descendants of the 780,993 enslaved people documented in Collection T71 cannot assess whether the access guarantee The National Archives has repeatedly asserted is legally sound without seeing the clause that overrides it. No commercial interest can outweigh that.

I request clause 16.1 of the Framework Licence Agreement dated 20 December 2017 in full and without redaction, in electronic form, within the statutory 20 working days.

Outcome

Information provided.

Response

I can confirm that The National Archives holds information relevant to your request, and we are pleased to be able to provide this information to you.

Please note that the previous decision to withhold information from the 2007 Licensing Agreement was made in consultation with the third party commercial provider (as directed by the ICO’s guidance on section 43(2)), which in this instance was Ancestry, and the determination to exempt information was made upon the basis of advice provided at that time by Ancestry concerning prejudice to their commercial interests.

We do not consider this to have been an unlawful decision, as the lower threshold of the prejudice test was considered to be met for the withheld information (meaning the disclosure of information would have a less than 50% chance of causing prejudice, although the risk was still considered to be substantial).

Furthermore, the subsequent Public Interest Test arrived at a reasonable determination with the advice we had available at the time, in determining that the balance of the test lay in favour of non-disclosure. This was a lawful decision made in line with the requirements of the FOI Act.

The decision to voluntarily release further information after additional consultation with Ancestry is a legitimate reconsideration of the original decision, and not unlawful conduct in the processing of the FOI request. A reconsideration of the original decision is the purpose behind the internal review process, and a public authority is allowed to change aspects of its original decision; particularly, in terms of considering the application of section 43(2), in the light of fresh advice from our commercial partners.

The clause in the 2017 framework is as follows; 16.1 The Licensor warrants that it has the right to license the Rights granted to the Publisher under this Agreement.