Terms and Conditions

  • Corporate information

This page, along with our Privacy and Cookies policies (together, the ‘Terms of Use’) sets out the terms and conditions for using the Public Health Scotland website (‘our site‘).

You should read these Terms of Use carefully before using our site as they apply as soon as you start using it. If you use our site, you accept these Terms of Use and agree to the terms they set out. You must not use our site if you do not agree to these Terms of Use.

1. Accessing our site

1.1 Our site is maintained for your personal use and viewing and we allow access to our site on a temporary basis. and reserve the right to withdraw or amend the service we provide on our site without notice. We will not be liable if for any reason our site is unavailable at any time or for any period.

1.2 You are also responsible for making sure that anyone who uses our site through your internet connection or via your mobile device(s) are aware of these terms, and that they comply with them.

2. Intellectual property rights 

2.1 Public Health Scotland owns or sublicenses all intellectual property rights in this website and in the material published on it, unless we credit or identify a separate author or owner.

2.2 Public Health Scotland copyright protected material is licensed for reuse under the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3.0 (external website) where it has been created as part of our public task. Full details of how to reuse or adapt Public Health Scotland materials are available in our Reproducing our content section.

3. Takedown procedure

3.1 Public Health Scotland publishes information both online and in hard copy format. Although every effort has been made to identify and contact rights holders, we recognise that sometimes material published may be in breach of copyright laws, contain sensitive personal data, or include content that may be regarded as obscene or defamatory.

3.2 If you are a rights holder and believe that you have found material on our website or in any of our products, for which you have not given permission, or that is not covered by a limitation or exception in national law, please contact us in writing or via email, providing the following:

  1. Your contact details
  2. The full bibliographic details or citation of the material, sufficient to identify it without ambiguity
  3. The full URL where you found the material
  4. Proof that you are the rights holder and a statement that you are the rights holder or are an authorised representative

This should be sent to:

Knowledge Services Team
Public Health Scotland
Gyle Square
1 South Gyle Crescent
Edinburgh
EH12 9EB
phs.knowledge@phs.scot

3.3 Upon receipt of notification, the ‘Notice and Takedown’ procedure is then invoked as follows:

  1. We will acknowledge receipt of your complaint by email or letter and will make an initial assessment of the validity of the complaint within ten working days.
  2. Upon receipt of a valid complaint the material will be temporarily removed from the website or physical stock suspended pending an agreed solution.
  3. The complainant and the contributor will be encouraged to resolve the issue swiftly and amicably and to the satisfaction of both parties, with the following possible outcomes:
    1. The material is left unchanged, or
    2. The material is replaced with changes, or
    3. The material is permanently removed.
  4. If the contributor and the complainant are unable to agree a solution, the material will remain unavailable until a time when a resolution has been reached.

4. Reliance on information

4.1 The Public Health Scotland website is provided ´as is´, without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of:

  • satisfactory quality
  • fitness for a particular purpose
  • non-infringement
  • compatibility
  • security

4.2 The information contained on our site is provided as general information only and does not constitute advice to you. We therefore disclaim all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on such materials by any visitor to our site or by anyone who may be informed of any of its contents.

4.3 Our site may include information and materials uploaded by other users of the site, including to the Public Health Scotland blog. This information and these materials have not been verified or approved by us. The views expressed by other users on our site do not represent our views or values.

5. Our liability

5.1 The material displayed on our site is provided without any guarantees, conditions or warranties as to its accuracy.

5.2 To the extent permitted by law, we hereby expressly exclude:

  • all conditions, warranties and other terms which might otherwise be implied by statute, common law or the law of equity
  • any liability for any direct, indirect or consequential loss or damage incurred by any user in connection with our site or in connection with the use, inability to use, or results of the use of our site, any websites linked to it and any materials posted on it, including without limitation any liability for
  • loss of income or revenue
  • loss of business
  • loss of profits or contracts
  • loss of anticipated savings
  • loss of data
  • loss of goodwill
  • wasted management or office time
  • for any other loss or damage of any kind, however arising and whether caused by tort (including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise, even if foreseeable

5.3 We do not warrant that:

  • functions within material contained on our site will be uninterrupted or error free
  • defects will be corrected
  • this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses
  • represent the full functionality or reliability of the materials

6. Information about you and your visits to our site

We process information about you in accordance with our Privacy policy and our use of cookies. By using our site you consent to such processing.

7. Uploading material to our site

7.1    Whenever you make use of a feature that allows you to upload material to our site, for example when you participate in the Public Health Scotland blog, you must comply with the content standards set out in these Terms of Use. You warrant that any such contribution does comply with these standards, and you indemnify us for any breach of that warranty. This means you will be responsible for any loss or damage we suffer as a result of your breach of warranty.

7.2    Where we do provide any interactive service, such as a blog, we will provide clear information to you about the kind of service offered and if it is moderated. However, we are under no obligation to oversee, monitor or moderate any service we provide on our site, and we expressly exclude our liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of any interactive service by a user in contravention of our content standards, whether the service is moderated or not.

7.3  Contributions to our site must:

  • be relevant to the subject matter of the relevant part of our site;
  • be accurate (where they state facts);
  • be genuinely held (where they state opinions); and
  • comply with the law applicable in Scotland and in any country from which they is posted.

7.3 Contributions to our site must not:

  • be defamatory of any person or attach an individual’s personality or character;
  • be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory;
  • bully, insult, threaten, intimidate or humiliate;
  • promote violence or discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age;
  • infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person;
  • contain spam;
  • be likely to deceive any person;
  • breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence;
  • identifies someone else (unless you have their permission);
  • contain any advertising or promotion unless an event, service or product has direct relevance to the topic or discussion; or
  • promote any illegal content or activity.

We do not permit or store any terrorist content.

7.4 Any material you upload to our site will be considered non-confidential and non-proprietary, and Public Health Scotland has the right to use, copy, distribute and disclose to third-parties any such material for any purpose. Public Health Scotland also has the right to disclose your identity to any third-party who is claiming that any material posted or uploaded by you to our site constitutes a violation of their intellectual property rights, or their right to privacy. 

7.5    Public Health Scotland will not be responsible, or liable to any third-party, for the content or accuracy of any materials posted by your or any other user of our site. 

7.6    Public Health Scotland has the right to remove any material or posting you make on our site if, in our opinion, such material does not comply with the standards set out in these Terms of Use.

8. Viruses, hacking and other offences

8.1 You must not misuse our site by knowingly introducing viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or other material which is malicious or technologically harmful. You must not attempt to gain unauthorised access to our site, the server on which our site is stored or any server, computer or database connected to our site. You must not attack our site via a denial-of-service attack or a distributed denial-of service attack.

8.2 By breaching this provision, you would commit a criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. We will report any such breach to the relevant law enforcement authorities and we will co-operate with those authorities by disclosing your identity to them. In the event of such a breach, your right to use our site will cease immediately.

8.3 We will not be liable for any loss or damage caused by a distributed denial-of-service attack, viruses or other technologically harmful material that may infect your computer equipment, computer programs, data or other proprietary material due to your use of our site or to your downloading of any material posted on it, or on any website linked to it.

9. Linking to our site

9.1 You may link to our site, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal and does not damage our reputation or take advantage of it.

9.2 You must not establish a link in such a way as to suggest any form of association, approval or endorsement on our part where none exists.

9.3 You must not establish a link from any website that is not owned by you.

9.4 Our site must not be framed on any other site and Public Health Scotland pages must load into the user's entire window.

9.5 You must contact us for permission if you want to charge your website’s users to click on a link to any page on publichealthscotland.scot

10. Links from our site

10.1 Where our site contains links to other websites and resources provided by third parties, these links are provided for your information only. We have no control over the contents of those sites or resources. We accept no responsibility for them or for any loss or damage that may arise from your use of them.

10.2 Our linking to third party sites should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time, and we have no control over the availability of linked pages.

11. Governing law

These Terms of Use and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them or their subject matter or formation (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Scotland.

12. Termination

We reserve the right to refuse access to our site to any user at our sole discretion.

13. Severance

13.1 If any provision of the Terms of Use is judged to be illegal or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, the remainder of the provisions of the Terms shall continue in full force and effect.

13.2 Some of the provisions contained in these terms of use may also be superseded by provisions or notices published elsewhere on our site.

14. Changes to terms and conditions

14.1 We may revise these Terms of Use at any time by amending this page. You are expected to check this page from time to time to take notice of any changes we made, as they are binding on you.

 

 

Last updated: 30 October 2024
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