T71 royalty arrangements and correspondence concerning access to the T 71 series

Request

The National Archives has previously disclosed to me, under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act 2000), two documents directly relevant to this request.

The first is a letter dated 24 October 2008 from Natalie Ceeney - Chief Executive of The National Archives, Keeper of Public Records, and Government Head of Profession for Knowledge and Information Management - held under The National Archives CRM reference CRM:019805, written on behalf of Michael Wills, Minister of State for Justice and Human Rights. That letter closes: 'I do hope this letter addresses your concerns.'

The second is an email exchange of 29-30 October 2008 between the Managing Director of The Generations Network, and a former Head of Licensing at The National Archives, also disclosed to me by The National Archives under the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act 2000). In that exchange, the Managing Director confirms that T71 image downloads would no longer form part of the quarterly royalty calculation 'under the various licenses and agreements we have in place.' The Head of Licensing replies: 'we are very grateful to you for this gesture which should go a long way towards assuaging the controversy around this collection.'

The National Archives' own FOI (freedom of information) response of 14 October 2025 stated explicitly: 'The National Archives do not receive any financial income from licensing these records.' The email of 29 October 2008 confirms that a royalty calculation on T71 image downloads existed and was actively waived as a commercial gesture. Those two positions are directly contradictory. The contradiction between The National Archives' own disclosed internal communications and its own FOI response is a matter of public record. It cannot be shielded by any commercial confidentiality exemption under section 43(2) of the FOIA, since the existence of the royalty calculation is already established by The National Archives' own disclosed documents.

Information Requested

1. All correspondence held on CRM:019805 subsequent to Ms Ceeney’s letter of 24 October 2008, including any response received from the correspondent to whom that letter was addressed.
2. The financial terms governing the royalty calculation on T71 image downloads referenced in the email of 29 October 2008 — specifically the direction of that financial flow, identifying whether royalties were paid by Ancestry to The National Archives, by The National Archives to Ancestry, or under any other arrangement — and the basis on which that calculation was waived in October 2008.

I request disclosure in electronic form within the statutory 20 working days.

Outcome

Some information provided.

Response

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

1. No relevant information is held.
2. As disclosed in the 2007 agreement in clause 6, at the time of signing the agreement states Ancestry (the ‘Publisher’) would have paid a royalty to The National Archives: ‘In consideration of the Rights granted to the Publisher under this Agreement, The Publisher shall pay a royalty to the Licensor’. Royalties were subsequently agreed to no longer be payable, as indicated in the previously supplied email exchange of 29-30 October 2008 between the Managing Director of The Generations Network, and the former Head of Licensing at The National Archives. The required retention period for financial records has expired so we do not hold any information regarding whether royalties were paid by Ancestry to The National Archives between 2007 and 2008, nor on the basis on which royalties were to be waived other than the correspondence that has been previously supplied.

We would like to clarify that our earlier response regarding royalties was not contradictory. In your previous request (CAS-284035) you asked if The National Archives ‘receives royalties, subscription-based revenue shares, or other payments connected to access.’ The request was phrased in the present tense. Our response was that ‘The National Archives do not receive any financial income from licensing these records’, as presently, it does not.