The records should have been offered free to an organization that would have made them available free of charge to everyone. There are some around.
Obviously none were interested, or rather they could not meet the terms of the tender in reality a commercial partner was wanted by the NA
The 1939 National Registration was put out to tender on 5 August 2013.
Some of the terms -
"The National Archives seeks to let a Service Concession contract for the 1939 Register to a commercial licensee. The Concessionaire will, at their cost, create official digital images and transcription of the 1939 Register information for England and Wales to specific technical standards and with line entry redaction in return for the grant of the right to provide of an online serviceat the Concessionaire’s commercial risk and subject to the payment to The National Archives of a royalty return. In more detail, the Concessionaire will
1) Provide a commercial service online which will provide public access to the digital images and associated metadata.
2) Create ‘official digital images’ for the 1939 Register which will be accessioned by The National Archives instead of the paper original."
Make no mistake this was a very expensive project for company to undertake.
The tender forms are online take a look for yourself
