Open Information and Exceptions Policy of the Natural History Museum, London

There have been few, if any, open data and information management policies openly published from natural science collections. This paper contextualises the rationale for publishing the Open Information and Exceptions Policy of the Natural History Museum, London and provides the policy itself. The policy outlines how the Natural History Museum puts the principle of 'open by default' into practice; and includes sections on purpose and scope, relationship to relevant legislation (which always takes precedence over the policy), the categories of possible exceptions to open information release, what happens when exceptions are declared, relations to UK government information security classifications and definition of terms.