This page
Related pages
External links
Downloads
Did you find this page useful?
Page information
This page was last updated on 27 June 2007
This section deals with some frequently-asked questions (FAQs) about CRE publications, copyright, reproduction and contracting issues, and our publications policy in general.
The FAQs on this page are divided into eleven sections. You can jump to any section by clicking on a link shown under 'This page' on the right-hand column of this page
If you cant find the answer to your question here, you can contact the Publications team directly.
Publication of information and guidance, whether in printed or electronic form, is one of the means by which the CRE works to end racial discrimination and to promote equal opportunity and good relations between individuals and communities with different origins. Publication is one element in the CREs broader communications work. Alongside its media, research, campaigning and information service work, the CRE's publishing plans are guided by the current CRE communications strategy.
Printed publications may include guides in the form of leaflets, booklets and sometimes books; periodicals such as our bimonthly magazine, Catalyst (first published in January 2006); codes of practice; racial equality standards; annual reports; factsheets; and formal investigation and research reports, as well as posters and postcards.
The full CRE publications catalogue is available on this website:
Electronic publications include the pages of the CRE website, information and guidance produced on CD-ROM, and documents in electronic formats such as Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) and Rich Text (.rtf). Electronic versions are now normally made available of publications that also exist in print, but not all electronic publications have printed counterparts. The CRE also has an intranet; an internal website only accessible to CRE staff.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the CRE, as a public authority, is now required to make available many kinds of document that would not previously have been considered to be publications, such as policies, strategies, briefings, minutes of committee meetings and so on. The classes of information that the CRE has undertaken proactively to make available, freely or at a price, are set out in the CRE Publications Scheme. In many cases, the documents can be found on the CRE website.
This team, of seven people, is part of the CRE's central Strategy and Communications directorate. It works closely with the media, research, campaigns and information services teams in the same department, as well as with other CRE departments. The Publications and New Media team is responsible for writing, editing, designing and producing CRE publications and display materials, for running the CRE website, and for the CRE's internal communications including the intranet. The team also oversees the publications distribution operation, and advises colleagues on matters of writing, editing, design and publication.
Writing, editing, design, layout and website editing and management are handled in-house, but some projects involve external writers, editors, designers and sometimes picture researchers. The printing and distribution of CRE printed publications are contracted out, along with the hosting of the CRE website.
To order any of the CRE publications listed on the CRE website (unless special ordering instructions are given), please contact TSO, the CRE's publications distributor (noting a publications ISBN number will make ordering simpler):
No. None of the CRE offices keeps a stock of publications for sale to the public. Our publications distributor, TSO, has been contracted to fulfil this role.
The CRE library was closed in 2004, so the CRE can no longer provide the service that was previously available to the public. Copies of all CRE publications are held in the main legal deposit libraries the British Library, the national libraries of Scotland and Wales, and the Oxford and Cambridge University libraries.
The CRE policy now is to make all the information it publishes freely available in electronic formats via the CRE website.
Annual reports, basic information leaflets and many other publications will also be also available free in printed form. However, some larger publications that are free in electronic form may still be priced in printed form, because they are expensive to produce and store. Posters, postcards and other merchandise may also be priced. Some older publications, including formal investigation reports, may not exist in electronic form, but only in printed form, priced.
In some cases, when the initial print run of a particular title has been used up and the continuing demand is low, rather than being reprinted in bulk, it will be set up with the distributor as a print on demand publication that can be digitally printed to order, one copy at a time. This approach avoids the high overall costs of producing litho-printed reprints in a longer printrun, for which there is little demand. The unit cost of digital printing, however, is relatively high, so in some cases a print on demand publication will be priced, to help offset this cost to the CRE.
In some cases - for example, with some recent formal investigation and research reports - the only stock available on publication will be a small, digitally printed stock. When this stock has been exhausted, these titles will become print-on-demand titles, and the initial pricing will be set to match the pricing of a print-on-demand version.
If there is evidence of demand, the CRE may produce publications in this format. The CRE guide for small businesses, Racial Equality and the Smaller Business, is available as a CD-ROM, and as a downloadable PDF file.
The CRE, as a public authority, is bound by EU and UK government procurement regulations, as well as its own guidance on racial equality and procurement.
The rules covering higher value contracts are more exacting than for smaller contracts. The biggest contracts are put out to tender through advertisements in the OJEU journal (the Official Journal of the EU and its website, where all major government contracts in EU countries are advertised) as well as on the CRE website. Smaller contracts are awarded through a simpler competitive tendering exercise.
In common with many public authorities, the CRE now intends to cover many of its procurement needs through an approved supplier list, which will include firms that have successfully bid for tendered contracts, or for inclusion in a pool of suppliers.
In the case of occasional services, including the provision of photographs or articles for publications, selection may be governed largely by the subject area, the expertise, or other unique qualities that a particular provider can offer.
With most CRE publications, writing, editing and design is handled in-house by the publications team staff. On occasions, the services of external editors designers, illustrators or photographers may also be commissioned.
The CRE Publications and New Media staff receive many enquiries each week from companies and individuals looking for design work. Enquirers will not normally find it possible to make appointments to show work, but will be invited to send in mailers or samples of work that can be kept on file, and referred to when a need arises to engage external help with editorial or design work. Printed examples sent by post are more likely than electronic examples sent by email to attract attention in these circumstances.
Photographers with portfolios that include documentary material of particular interest to the CRE may be given an appointment to show their work.
The CRE is not a commercial publishing house and as a rule does not publish unsolicited texts either in printed or electronic form.
We may commission external researchers to conduct research on behalf of the CRE, in which case the CRE may, but will not necessarily, publish their report, or a summary of it.
The CRE sometimes commissions writers with particular expertise to write articles for the CRE magazine Catalyst, and occasionally for other publications, or for use on the CRE website. Sometimes, we act as a joint publisher with another organisation for a publication written by someone from the partner organisation rather than the CRE.
The editor of the CRE's magazine, Catalyst, may be interested in following up a story relevant to the CRE's concerns, and sometimes in commissioning an article from a journalist or writer with authoritative knowledge of a particular issue, but is unlikely to publish an unsolicited article.
The CRE logo is a badge indicating the CRE's corporate responsibility for what appears under it, and it is therefore important that nothing should appear under it that the CRE is not fully aware of and has not knowingly authorised. The CRE logo is not a kitemark signifying approval or endorsement by the CRE. The CRE has no capacity to offer any system of endorsement or accreditation, and requests for permission to use the logo in this way will be refused even in the case of organisations wishing to demonstrate their compliance with CRE standards or otherwise pursuing objectives that the CRE would share.
The CRE logo (like other elements of the CRE's corporate identity such as the CRE website masthead graphic) is not available for use by anyone else, except in the following limited circumstances (in which case more detailed guidance on the use of the logo will be provided):
In these circumstances alone, the CRE can supply artwork for the CRE logo, with further instructions governing its reproduction.
Racial equality councils (RECs), even when in receipt of CRE funding, are not entitled to use the CRE logo in its current form (except in the circumstances listed above). However, with the CRE's agreement, many RECs incorporate within their own logos the black and white handshake symbol based on an older, more angular version of the CRE logo and with the distinguishing feature that it is surrounded by a chequered ring, which must not be omitted.
These restrictions apply to the specific form of the CRE logo. There is no copyright on the concept of a black and white handshake as an emblem of racial equality or harmony, and the CRE will make no objection to the use of the idea by others provided that it is drawn in a way that cannot be mistaken for the CRE logo.
Text
Requests for permission to reproduce CRE-copyright texts from printed or electronic publications, including the CRE website, are usually granted, provided that:
In most cases the CRE will charge no fee for permitting this reproduction. However, if CRE text forms a significant element in a commercial project, or if the reproduction would be likely to have an adverse effect on any revenue the CRE might expect to gain from sale of a priced publication, the CRE may charge a reproduction fee.
The copyright on articles that non-CRE writers contribute to CRE publications, including Catalyst magazine, may belong to the author rather than the CRE. In this case, the authors permission may be required, unless the author has agreed to allow the CRE to permit reproduction.
Short passages of any copyright text may lawfully be quoted for the purposes of review or comment without permission.
Images
The copyright on most of the photographs or illustrations used in CRE publications does not belong to the CRE.
The CRE will have paid reproduction fees to the photographers, agencies and artists, and will have no right of disposal over the copyright. The name of the copyright holder will be credited in the publication, either in a small credit line near the image, or in a list of picture sources.
The photographs of the CRE chair, deputy chairs and commissioners that are posted in the News and Media Picture Library section of the CRE website may be freely downloaded and reproduced without permission and without charge provided the CRE's copyright is acknowledged, and provided the use is not defamatory. The same applies to any other photographs that may be found in the same place.
Permission must be obtained to reproduce advertisements or campaigning images that have been published in the name of the CRE (unless these have been posted on the website in reproducible form with a statement exempting them from any need to seek permission). Similar considerations to those that govern requests to reproduce CRE-copyright text (see above) will apply in this case.
From time to time the CRE teams up in partnership with one or more other organisations to produce a joint publication that will be jointly badged with their various logos.
Copyright may rest either with the CRE or with a partner organisation, but it will not be held jointly, as this would make for administrative complications. The question will normally be decided at the time the project is conceived. Whichever organisation has the major role in writing and producing the publication is normally the copyright holder, will normally attach an ISBN number (bibliographic reference) from its own series to the publication, and will normally apply its own design and editorial house styles to the publication, subject to the agreement of partners.
The CRE is not a picture archive and apart from small number of photographs, of CRE commissioners and certain events that may be downloadable in reproduction-quality from the CRE websites News and Media section it cannot supply images for use by others.
The photographers and agencies who own the copyright for pictures the CRE has used in its publications are credited, either in a small credit line printed over or near the photograph, or in a list of photographic sources.
The British Association of Picture Libraries (BAPLA) is a professional organisation that can advise picture researchers on the specialities of particular photographers and photographic agencies, and may be able to suggest other directories.
This site contains a help section, which may answer some common questions and difficulties:
You may need to install an application such as Adobe Acrobat Reader before you can open a PDF file that you have downloaded, or Microsoft's Word Viewer software to view Word (.doc or .rtf) files.
This website is designed to support accessibility tools, such as access keys and screen readers. More information about these can be found in this website's Help section.
The CRE web editor cannot give advice to users on problems that may concern their own systems and software configurations. If something seems not to be working as it should be, and you have found no solution via the CRE website help section, or the support line for your own internet service provider or IT support department, you can inform us of the problem by clicking on this link:
The publications section of the CRE website gives details on how to order publications, and includes an order form that can be printed off, filled in manually, and faxed or posted to the CRE's publications distributor.
There is no automatic on-line ordering at present, but there are email and web links to the TSO bookshop site where orders can be taken online.
See Does the CRE permit others to reproduce CRE copyright texts and images? above.
Outgoing hyperlinks from the CRE website
To keep our links as useful as possible to users of the CRE website, we restrict outgoing links to sites that we consider likely to be of interest to typical users of our own site broadly, those that deal with equality, discrimination, human rights, law, and ethnic and cultural diversity in Britain. There is therefore no automatic reciprocation of incoming links from other sites. If you think a particular site would qualify by these criteria, please feel free to suggest iftfor inclusion on our list.
We are not responsible for the content or reliability of linked websites. Listing should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all the time and we have no control over the availability of linked pages.
Hyperlinks into the CRE website from other websites
You do not have to ask permission to link directly to pages on the CRE website. However, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on another site. The pages must load into the user's entire window.
As a matter of policy, the texts of new publications from the CRE are made available in Portable Document Format (PDF) and Rich Text Format (RTF) files that can be freely downloaded from the CRE website. The RTF files will have been adapted into the simplest possible layout so they can be read easily by the screen reader applications used by many blind people. Partially-sighted users can easily change the type size to suit their own needs. The CRE will supply digital files or large type printouts on demand to anyone who is unable to use the website.
In the case of older publications, when no PDF or RTF version is already available, the CRE will produce an accessible version on demand to meet the needs of a disabled reader.
Although the CRE does not hold a stock of its publications in Braille or audio formats, it will supply them on demand to readers who need them. In the case of texts that are available free to sighted readers, there will be no charge to the customer. In the case of any texts that are only available priced, the charge for a special format will be the same as for the standard format. The time required to deliver an order for Braille or audio formats will be longer than for other formats. The CRE will inform the customer of the expected delivery date.
The latest version of the CRE website has been designed to comply with Level 1 of the World Wide Web Consortium's WAI (Web Accessibilility) standards. This means it can be read by screen-reader applications, with text content clearly separated from structural formatting that the software can ignore. The drop-down menus are provided as a quick and easy way of navigating the site, but users who have difficulty using a mouse may find it easier to navigate the site using either access keys, or the list of links shown under the right-hand column of pages within this site.
All text elements on CRE website pages can be resized by adjusting your web browser's text size settings - please refer to the link below for information about how to do this.
The CRE has a statutory obligation to publish Welsh translations of particular types of publication, and in certain cases may also publish translations into minority languages.
Translations into Welsh
The CREs policy on Welsh translation is defined in the CRE Welsh Language Scheme. It is obliged to consider providing bilingual text or Welsh translations of new publications in the following categories:
Bilingual summaries, if not complete bilingual translations, will also be considered for:
In many cases, the CRE will meet its obligations under the CRE Welsh Language Scheme by providing a Welsh translation in an electronic format that is freely downloadable from the website. In other cases printed versions will also be available. These may be priced.
Translations into minority languages
Many CRE publications are aimed primarily at organisations rather than individuals seeking help. Publications of this kind often contain detailed guidance on the law, involving concepts and terminology of a rather specialised nature that may not easily lend itself to written translation into minority languages, and they will not normally be translated into languages other than Welsh.
A responsibility to make information on many issues of public concern available in a certain language for a certain local readership will often apply to an organisation such as a local council, rather than to the CRE.
The CRE may itself publish translations into certain languages other than Welsh of some leaflets giving basic general information on the law and the CRE itself, rather than detailed guidance (some publications of this sort, currently out of print, will be available again in translation after they have been revised).
Translation and printing are both expensive. A huge number of languages are spoken in Britain, and no publicly funded organisation could afford to undertake the publication of translations without clear evidence of need.
If someone the CRE is helping needs information in a particular language in order to understand and exercise their rights fully, the CRE will take reasonable steps to accommodate that need. This would not necessarily mean providing publications in translation; it might mean providing interpreters, audio translations, or translations of individual documents relevant to a particular case.
The CRE does not make recommendations to other organisations concerning translations, apart from the general advice to make reasonable accommodations to meet the needs of particular communities where there is evidence of such needs. Particular local needs may exist that are not reflected in the same proportion nationally.
The CRE cannot make recommendations favouring particular private companies. A great number of translation agencies listed with their professional accreditation can be found via well-known directories and internet sites. The companies the CRE itself has used may be a matter of record, but this fact does not constitute a recommendation of any particular company over any other.
Like most organisations, the CRE has a house style of its own that it tries to use consistently in its publications and pronouncements. The CRE makes no recommendations to others on the use of particular terms, apart from recommending that ethnic monitoring terms should relate to the census categories, and that otherwise, as far as possible, people and groups should be referred to by terms that they generally accept. There is no complete consensus about this, so there are no perfect solutions. The CREs house style takes the following approach:
General terms
Particular terms
The only publications mailing list the CRE has at present is the subscriber list of the CRE magazine, Catalyst (see below for how to become a free subscriber). Individual teams and departments at the CRE keep their own contact lists of individuals and organisations they deal with.
In future, the CRE website will include new functions that make it easier for members of the public to add their names to lists entitling them to email alerts concerning new publications and other CRE initiatives.
A leaflet or flyer placed as an insert in the CRE magazine,Catalyst, will reach the magazines subscribers, but the CRE will not release the contact details of subscribers. The data we hold has normally been collected under a data protection statement that the CRE will use the information for its own purposes only, and will not release them to anyone else.
In January 2006, the CRE launched a new bimonthly magazine, Catalyst. It replaces the CRE's previous magazine, Connections, which was published between 1997 and 2004.
Catalyst aims to:
Where can I find an archive of articles from Connections, the CRE's previous magazine?
Connections magazine was published by the CRE between 1997 and 2004. It has now been replaced by a new, bimonthly CRE magazine, Catalyst. If you have subscribed to Connections in the past, you should automatically have been re-subscribed to Catalyst in time for the publication of the first issue in January 2006.
You can read features from the last five issues on Connections on this website:
We will be adding a more complete archive of previous Connections features to the Catalyst website in the coming months:
To add your name to the free subscribers list, to cancel your free subscription, to amend your details as an existing subscriber, please contact TSO, the CRE's publications distributor:
Catalyst carries some reviews of books that touch on the CRE's area of concern, and sometimes of films, plays and exhibitions. The editor will be pleased to receive review copies, and to consider them for review, but cannot give any general undertaking to review books received.
Review copies should be sent to: The Editor, Catalyst, Commission for Racial Equality, 201-211 St Dunstan's House, Borough High Street, London SE1 1GZ.
If you want to find out whether it is possible to advertise in a forthcoming issue of the magazine, please 'phone 020 7939 0000 and ask to speak to the editor of Catalyst.
It is possible to include A5 or A4 inserts with Catalyst in the mailout to subscribers. The current printrun is 10,000 and the same figure applies to the number of inserts normally included. It is not possible to subdivide the subscriber list, so if there are fewer inserts than subscribers, those whose names or organisations begin with letters lower down the alphabet will miss out.
Please contact the editor for details of rates and specifications for advertisements and inserts.
Since January 2005, the CRE, as a public body, has been fully bound by the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). The basic principle of the FOIA is that all information apart from items that have been legitimately exempted (for example, personal information protected by the Data Protection Act, matters of commercial or legal confidence, and so on) must be made available to the public if required. This obviously can not mean that all information will be provided proactively in the form of a 'publication', but the CRE has undertaken to publish routinely certain classes of information, either in print or electronically via the CRE website, while other classes of information would only be made available on application ( sometimes at a price). These classes of information are fully set out in the CRE Publication Scheme, which is available from the Downloads section of this page.
Broadly, the information that the CRE will provide proactively includes:
For more information about the CRE's freedom on information policy, click on the following link:
The following statutory codes of practice are currently in force (which means that they may be taken into consideration by a court or tribunal deciding a case under the Race Relations Act 1976).
Please note that a consultation draft of a new combined housing code will be published in May 2005. The final housing code is expected to be given parliamentary approval later in 2005 or early in 2006, when it will replace the two existing housing codes.
The following non-statutory codes never had statutory force, and are now in many ways out of date, though the advice they contain may still be useful if read in conjunction with the Statutory Code of Practice on the Duty to Promote Race Equality. All these codes are now out of print, but their text can still be found in HTML format on
The CRE has a statutory duty to publish an annual report for each calendar year, reporting on the work that it has done during the year and the use it has made of its public funding. The Race Relations Act 1976 determines that the reporting period must be the calendar year rather than the financial year. Besides the main annual report, the CRE also publishes supplements covering its work in Scotland and Wales. The exact publication date depends on the parliamentary timetable and is scheduled with the Home Office each year, but the annual report normally appears in mid summer, since the audited accounts are only available sometime after the end of the financial year.
The annual report is freely downloadable in PDF format from the CRE website. Printed copies can be ordered from the CREs publications distributor (see How can I order CRE publications above).
CRE annual reports for years from1998 onwards can be downloaded from the CRE website in PDF format. Reports for earlier years are now out of print. Since the closure of the CRE library in 2004, the only libraries that should have copies of all publications are the main legal deposit libraries the British Library, the National libraries of Scotland and Wales, and the University libraries of Oxford and Cambridge.
Most reports of formal investigations carried out since 1976 are either still in stock in printed form, or are available as a priced print-on-demand publication from the CREs publications distributor, and can be ordered in the same way as other publications. More recent formal investigation reports can be downloaded in PDF or Word format from this website. If a particular, older report goes out of print, the CRE will arrange for it to be set up as a print-on-demand title.