Licenses - 1939 National Health Registers

The National Archives (TNA) welcomes expressions of interest in non-exclusive, 10 year licenses to publish the images from the 1939 NHS Registers - at second-to-market and third-to-market levels. The second-to-market license will allow publication for ten years from 1st December, 2017.

The third-to-market license will allow publication for ten years from 1st December, 2019. Each license will include an annual delivery of images with the latest set of redactions lifted.

There will be a single delivery of images per year for the life of the contract. For each license, TNA intends to negotiate a fixed price for the delivery of images and an ongoing royalty from income earned upon publication.

TNA will consider partnership bids for either license. About the 1939 Register The 1939 Register was taken on 29th September, 1939 and records data for 40 million people including names, addresses, marital status and occupations.

Commissioned to take stock of the civil population in order to issue Identity Cards and to establish rationing and other war time provisions, in the longer term it would go on to play a central role in the establishment of post-war services, such as the NHS, and more. With the release of census data limited by legislation, the most recent data currently available publicly is the 1911 census, with the 1921 census coming online around 2022.

The 1931 census was destroyed by war and the 1941 census was never taken, making the 1939 Register the most complete survey of the civil population of England and Wales available for a 30-year period. Its publication online is the most significant public release of historical records of the decade. The Register comprises 1.2 million pages in 7,000 volumes.