Content licensing and integration
Information regarding NHS Users
Currently, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence procures British National Formulary (BNF) and BNF for Children (BNFC) content for the NHS. This content (including Cautionary and Advisory Labels) is available for ‘read only’ purposes at https://bnf.nice.org.uk/ and https://bnfc.nice.org.uk/ (and via the BNF + BNFC app) and all viewers must accept the provisions of the End User Licensing Agreement. The NICE UK Open Content Licence only applies to content produced and published by NICE and clause 12 confirms BNF and BNFC are excluded from this licence.
Qualifying NHS bodies are not permitted to copy or scrape BNF or BNFC content from the NICE website or download or insert BNF or BNFC content from the NICE website into third party software systems. Use in AI training systems is prohibited. NHS procurement teams must check that all software and database providers have a licence from the BNF Partners to provide software services that use our content, including the Cautionary and Advisory Labels. This can be checked by contacting via this form. Use of BNF or BNFC content for computerised decision support is specifically prohibited and requires a licence from the BNF Partners in all situations.
NICE do not procure BNF and BNFC content for use outside the NHS (this includes linking to BNF and BNFC content on the NICE website). For the avoidance of doubt, the following organisations are excluded:
- Non-NHS public sector organisations;
- Royal Colleges and other professional bodies for clinicians etc;
- Higher and Further education establishments (status as educators does not exempt such bodies from copyright restrictions – government guidance explicitly states that “Schools, colleges and universities still have to pay for third party teaching materials which are available under licence”);
- Health-related research and information charities;
- Commercial organisations, including but not limited to:
- information providers.
- pharmaceutical companies.
- health insurance providers.
- organisations contracted/financially remunerated to provide services for the NHS.
All Non-NHS bodies must obtain a licence from the BNF Partners to use BNF and BNFC content in any format and for any purpose and are not entitled to use the content on the NICE website. A discount may be applicable if the licensee holds an NHS contract.
None of the authors or publishers of BNF or BNFC content are “public sector bodies” and therefore BNF and BNFC content is not “Public Sector Information” that is subject to the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations (2015).
Translation of BNF and BNFC content is prohibited unless the BNF Partners have granted you a licence to do so.
