Terms and conditions

This page, and any pages it links to, explains the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender service’s terms and conditions. You must agree to these to use the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender services.

Who we are

Contracts Finder and Find a Tender are managed by Crown Commercial Service (CCS) on behalf of the Crown. CCS is part of the Cabinet Office and will be referred to as ‘we’ from now on.

Using Contracts Finder and Find a Tender

You agree to use the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender services only for lawful purposes. You must also use it in a way that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of, this site by anyone else.

We update Contracts Finder and Find a Tender all the time. We can change or remove content at any time without notice.

Services and transactions

You can use Contracts Finder and Find a Tender as a supplier to search for contract opportunities and as a buyer to publish notices to the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender services.

These can be managed by CCS, Government Digital Service (GDS) or another government department or agency.

Some services have their own terms and conditions which also apply - read these before you use the service.

Linking to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender

We welcome and encourage other websites to link to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender.

You must contact us for permission if you want to either:

charge your website’s users to click on a link to any page on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender
say your website is associated with or endorsed by Contracts Finder, Find a Tender or another government department or agency.

Linking from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender

Contracts Finder and Find a Tender links to websites that are managed by other government departments and agencies, service providers or other organisations. We do not have any control over the content on these websites.

We’re not responsible for:

the protection of any information you give to these websites
any loss or damage that may come from your use of these websites, or any other websites they link to

You agree to release us from any claims or disputes that may come from using these websites.

You should read all terms and conditions, privacy policies and end user licences that relate to these websites before you use them.

Using Contracts Finder and Find a Tender content

Most content on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender is subject to Crown copyright protection and is published under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

Some content is exempt from the OGL - check the list of exemptions.

Departmental logos and crests are also exempt from the OGL, except when they form an integral part of a document or dataset.

If any content is not subject to Crown copyright protection or published under the OGL, we’ll usually credit the author or copyright holder.

You can reproduce content published on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender under the OGL as long as you follow the licence’s conditions.

We make most of the content on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender available through feeds for other websites and applications to use. The websites and applications that use our feeds are not our products, and they might use versions of our content that have been edited and stored for later use (‘cached’).

We do not give any guarantees, conditions or warranties about the accuracy or completeness of any content used by these products. We’re not liable for any loss or damage that may come from your use of these products.

The most up to date version of our content will always be on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender.

Acceptable Use

This section describes prohibited uses of the web services we offer and the websites located at https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk and https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk (the “Contracts Finder or Find a Tender Site”). The examples described here are not exhaustive.

The Contracts Finder and Find a Tender websites are OFFICIAL services provided to enable Users to engage with the HMG Procurement process. Provision of access to the Service is subject to business need.

No Illegal, Harmful, or Offensive Use or Content

You may not use, or encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to use, the Services for any illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive use, or to transmit, store, display, distribute or otherwise make available content that is illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive. Prohibited activities or content include:

Illegal, Harmful or Fraudulent Activities. Any activities that are illegal, that violate the rights of others, or that may be harmful to others, our operations or reputation, including disseminating, promoting or facilitating child pornography, offering or disseminating fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions, make-money-fast schemes, ponzi and pyramid schemes, phishing, or pharming.
Infringing Content. Content that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others.
Offensive Content. Content that is defamatory, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, or otherwise objectionable, including content that constitutes child pornography, relates to bestiality, or depicts non-consensual sex acts.
Harmful Content. Content or other computer technology that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, or data, including viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or cancelbots.

No Security Violations

You may not use the Services to violate the security or integrity of any network, computer or communications system, software application, or network or computing device (each, a “System”). Prohibited activities include:

Unauthorized Access. Accessing or using any System without permission, including attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a System or to breach any security or authentication measures used by a System.
Interception. Monitoring of data or traffic, other than for approved business use, on the service without permission.
Falsification of Origin. Forging TCP-IP packet headers, email headers, or any part of a message describing its origin or route. The legitimate use of aliases and anonymous remailers is not prohibited by this provision.

No Network Abuse

You may not make network connections to any users, hosts, or networks unless you have permission to communicate with them. Prohibited activities include:

Monitoring or Crawling. Monitoring or crawling of a System that impairs or disrupts the System being monitored or crawled.
Denial of Service (DoS). Inundating a target with communications requests so the target either cannot respond to legitimate traffic or responds so slowly that it becomes ineffective.
Intentional Interference. Interfering with the proper functioning of any System, including any deliberate attempt to overload a system by mail bombing, news bombing, broadcast attacks, or flooding techniques.
Operation of Certain Network Services. Operating network services like open proxies, open mail relays, or open recursive domain name servers.
Avoiding System Restrictions. Using manual or electronic means to avoid any use limitations placed on a System, such as access and storage restrictions

Our Monitoring and Enforcement

We reserve the right, but do not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of this Policy or misuse of the Services. We may:

investigate violations of this Policy or misuse of the Services; or
remove, disable access to, or modify any content or resource that violates this Policy or any other agreement we have with you for use of the Services.

We may report any activity that we suspect violates any law or regulation to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties. Our reporting may include disclosing appropriate customer information. We also may cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other appropriate third parties to help with the investigation and prosecution of illegal conduct by providing network and systems information related to alleged violations of this Policy.

Reporting of Violations of this Policy

If you become aware of any violation of this Policy, you will immediately notify us and provide us with assistance, as requested, to stop or remedy the violation. To report any violation of this Policy, please follow our abuse reporting procedure

Service Consumer Responsibility

By consuming the service you agree to take all necessary precautions to assure the integrity of any data accessed, including protection against malware and malicious code. It is your responsibility to investigate and resolve any issues arising from errors or warnings returned arising from data being consumed from Contracts Finder and/or Find a Tender service when you download published material.

By consuming the service you are consenting to Crown Commercial Service recording details of any service access requests/downloads and the associated meta-data with any connectivity.

Disclaimer

While we make every effort to keep Contracts Finder and Find a Tender up to date, we do not provide any guarantees, conditions or warranties that the information will be:

Current
Secure
Accurate
Complete
Free from bugs or viruses

We do not publish advice on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. You should get professional or specialist advice before doing anything on the basis of the content.

We’re not liable for any loss or damage that may come from using Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. This includes:

any direct, indirect or consequential losses
any loss or damage caused by civil wrongs (‘tort’, including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise
the use of Contracts Finder and Find a Tender and any websites that are linked to or from it
the inability to use Contracts Finder and Find a Tender and any websites that are linked to or from it
This applies if the loss or damage was foreseeable, arose in the normal course of things

you advised us that it might happen.

This includes (but is not limited to) the loss of your:

income or revenue
salary, benefits or other payments
business
profits or contracts
Opportunity
anticipated savings
Data
goodwill or reputation
tangible property
intangible property, including loss, corruption or damage to data or any computer system
wasted management or office time

We may still be liable for:

death or personal injury arising from our negligence
fraudulent misrepresentation
any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law

Requests to remove content

You can ask for content to be removed from Contracts Finder and Find a Tender. We’ll remove content:

in order to comply with data protection legislation covering the rights and freedoms of individuals
if it breaches copyright laws, contains sensitive personal data or material that may be considered obscene or defamatory

Contact us to ask for content to be removed. You’ll need to send us the web address (URL) of the content and explain why you think it should be removed. We’ll reply to let you know whether we’ll remove it.

We remove content at our discretion in discussion with the department or agency responsible for it. You can still request information under the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.

Information about you and your visits to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender

We collect information about you in accordance with our privacy notice and our cookie policies for Contracts Finder or Find a Tender. By using Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, you agree to us collecting this information and confirm that any data you provide is accurate.

Virus protection

We make every effort to check and test Contracts Finder and Find a Tender for viruses at every stage of production. You must make sure that the way you use Contracts Finder and Find a Tender does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which can damage your computer system.

We’re not responsible for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or computer system that might happen when you use Contracts Finder and Find a Tender.

Viruses, hacking and other offences

When using Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, you must not introduce viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or any other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.

You must not try to gain unauthorised access to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, the server on which it’s stored or any server, computer or database connected to it.

You must not attack Contracts Finder and Find a Tender in any way. This includes denial-of-service attacks.

We’ll report any attacks or attempts to gain unauthorised access to Contracts Finder and Find a Tender to the relevant law enforcement authorities and share information about you with them.

Governing law

These terms and conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

Any dispute you have which relates to these terms and conditions, or your use of Contracts Finder and Find a Tender (whether it be contractual or non-contractual), will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

General

There may be legal notices elsewhere on Contracts Finder and Find a Tender that relate to how you use the site.

We’re not liable if we fail to comply with these terms and conditions because of circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

We might decide not to exercise or enforce any right available to us under these terms and conditions. We can always decide to exercise or enforce that right at a later date.

Doing this once will not mean we automatically waive the right on any other occasion.

If any of these terms and conditions are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions will still apply.

Changes to these terms and conditions

Please check these terms and conditions regularly. We can update them at any time without notice.

You’ll agree to any changes if you continue to use Contracts Finder and Find a Tender after the terms and conditions have been updated.

Last updated 20 September 2019

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