Reading documents
Every result links to the original. Whether you can also read our copy depends on the organisation that published it, not on your plan.
Extracts and our copy
We show the whole document only where the organisation publishes its papers under the Open Government Licence, or has agreed that we can reuse them. We say “Whole document” under “What we can show”.
For other organisations we show short passages of up to about 50 words around what you searched for (“Short passages”). You can read the whole document free on the organisation’s website. Opening the original doesn’t count towards anything.
Coroners’ reports are published under the Open Government Licence, so their text is shown in full.
Example
A search finds “corridor care” in the minutes of a trust where we show short passages. You see the passage in the results. Open original takes you to the PDF on the trust’s website, at the page if we know it.
How many documents you can open
Opening our copy counts towards a monthly allowance on the Free plan: 3 documents a month. Paid plans have no monthly limit. Opening the same document again in the same month doesn’t count twice, and the allowance starts again on the 1st of each month, UK time. When you’ve used it, you can still search and read extracts as much as you like.
Example
On the Free plan you open three documents we can show whole in May. In June you can open three more.
Sharing a page
As you read, the page you’re on is kept in the address bar, so the address opens at that page. “Copy link to this page”, under Cite this and in the Cite menu, copies the same link. When you quote a document, cite the original: the citation names it, not Minute Book.
Someone without an account who opens your link sees what the document is: its title, organisation, date, a link to the original, the citation and the titles of the agenda items, but none of its text. Creating a free account brings them straight back to the page, and opening it counts towards their monthly allowance as usual.
Example
You’re reading page 11 of a trust’s board pack and send the link to a colleague. They sign up from it and land on page 11.
When an original has gone
We check now and then that each original is still on the organisation’s website. We only say it has gone after two checks at least a day apart both fail to find it. When it has gone, we:
- say so, with the date we checked;
- link to an archived copy in the Internet Archive if there is one, and to the UK Government Web Archive;
- let you read our unchanged copy as an archived record of a public document, whatever the reuse status.
The organisation still owns the copyright and can ask us to remove our copy.
Example
“This document is no longer at the address where Northfell Hospitals published it. We last found it there on 2 Oct 2026 and checked again on 9 Oct 2026. You can still read our copy.” Read the archived record opens what we collected on the day we collected it.
Scanned pages
Some papers are published as scans. We read their text automatically, which can get words wrong. These documents are marked “Scanned pages: check the original”. Check the wording against the original before you quote it.
Example
A scanned page might read “c0rridor” for “corridor”, so a search might not find it. Searching corridor* won’t help either. If an organisation’s papers are mostly scans, check the originals for anything important.
Draft and approved minutes
Minutes are often published as a draft first and approved at the next meeting. We label drafts. We check again 3 days, a week and a month after collecting a draft to see whether an approved version has appeared.
When we hold both, “Compare the draft and approved minutes” shows the passages that changed. Struck-through words were in the draft but not the approved version. Underlined words are in the approved version but not the draft. Minutes are often corrected before a board approves them. A difference is not in itself a sign that anything was wrong.
Example
A draft says “the board noted the report”. The approved minutes say “the board noted the report and asked for an update in March”. The comparison shows the added words underlined.