Terms and conditions
Conditions of Use of Service for access to the Test Environment
Please read these Conditions of Use carefully and ensure that You understand them before you interact with Registers of Scotland (RoS) via the Service.
1. DEFINITIONS
“Access Approval”
Means an Access Request that has been granted by RoS;
“Access Date”
Means the date You are granted an Access Approval to an Interface;
“Access Request”
Means a request by You for access to an Interface within the Test Environment;
“Address Data”
Means any addressing data within the System which contains the Interested Parties Intellectual Property Rights, has been processed against Ordnance Survey’s AddressBase Premium product, and incorporates Royal Mail’s PAF© database;
“Approved Interface”
Means any Interface for which You (i) have Access Approval (ii) have accepted these Conditions of Use and (iii) exercise that access within the relevant Term;
“Content”
Means any and all text, images, maps, audio, video, scripts, code, software, databases and any other form of information that appears on, or forms part of, or is accessible through, or requested through the System;
“Database”
Means RoS’s database on which RoS’s data is stored, including data You are entitled to access through the Approved Interface, together with other data which You may not be entitled to access;
“Data Protection Legislation”
Means the Data Protection Act 2018 (or any statutory modification or re-enactment thereof), the EU General Data Protection Regulation and all applicable laws and regulations relating to processing of personal data and privacy, including where applicable the guidance and codes of practice issued by the Information Commissioner;
“Data Protection Losses”
Means all liabilities and other amounts, including all:
(a) costs (including legal and professional costs), claims, demands, actions, settlements, interest, charges, procedures, expenses, losses and damages (including relating to material or non-material damage);
(b) loss or damage to reputation, brand or goodwill;
(c) costs and expenses of investigation and remediation;
(d) to the extent permitted by applicable law:
(i) administrative fines, penalties, sanctions, liabilities or other remedies imposed by a Data Protection Supervisory Authority;
(ii) compensation paid to a Data Subject (as that term is defined in the Data Protection Legislation) (including compensation to protect goodwill and ex gratia payments); and
(iii) costs and expenses of compliance with investigations by a Data Protection Supervisory Authority;
“Data Protection Supervisory Authority”
Means any local, national or multinational agency, department, official, parliament, public or statutory person or any government or professional body, regulatory or supervisory authority, board or other body responsible for administering Data Protection Legislation;
“Dummy Data”
Means fictional data which is not related to real persons or property;
“Equipment and Software”
Means the equipment and software which You are required to have in order to access the System via a User ID and which is capable of communicating with the System, including without limitation, telephone lines, modems, hardware and software;
“Evaluation Use”
Means processing, evaluating and testing the behaviour of a new product or service You want to test and/or which RoS intends to make available to its customers, for internal business management purposes only (and not on any external facing website) to obtain assurance that it can integrate with hardware, software, network configurations, and data of the Equipment and Software and will not be compromised by environmental conditions or fluctuations;
“Evaluation Interface”
Means a separate ringfenced area within the Test Environment that gives access to You for Evaluation Use;
“Intellectual Property Rights”
Means patents, inventions, trademarks, service marks, logos, design rights (whether registerable or otherwise), applications for any of the foregoing, copyright, database rights, domain names, trade or business names, moral rights and other similar rights or obligations, whether registerable or not, in any country or jurisdiction;
“Interested Party”
Means any third party from whom RoS obtains data within the System or Database, under licence or delegation (as the case may be), including without limitation Royal Mail and Ordnance Survey Limited;
“Interface”
Means a Training Interface or an Evaluation Interface;
“Live Service”
Means an existing product or service offered by RoS to qualifying customers as part of its public task;
“RoS”
Means The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland;
“Term”
Means for each Approved Interface, the date from the relevant Access Date to the relevant Termination Date;
“Termination Date”
Means the date Your access is terminated to the relevant Approved Interface in accordance with Clause 10;
“Test Environment”
Means the collection of defined hardware and software components with appropriate configuration settings that are necessary for Evaluation Use and/or Training Use;
“Training Use”
Means you training a User on how to use a Live Service where the User inputs Dummy Data on a mocked up version of the Live Service, strictly for Your internal use purposes (and not on any external facing website);
“Training Interface”
Means a separate ringfenced area within the Test Environment that gives access to a mocked-up version of a Live Service for Training Use;
“Service”
Means a service offered by RoS for use of the Test Environment in accordance with these Conditions of Use;
“System”
Means the Test Environment and all RoS’s web infrastructure which provides a single point of access to the Test Environment;
“User”
Means any person using the System by way of a User ID;
“User ID”
Means the unique log-on name, pin, password or other means of identification allocated to You by RoS from time to time to enable access to and use of the Service;
“User Policy”
Means the policy set out at Annex 1;
“You and Your”
Means the business or organisation, including (without limitation) a company, firm, partnership or an individual acting as a sole trader, or other person who has registered to use the Service;
2. ACCESS
2.1. Before using the Service you will need to accept these Conditions of Use by completing the appropriate box below on first sign up to the System. If You access the Test Environment You will be deemed to have accepted these Conditions of Use.
3. USER ID
3.1. You are warranting that any User who accesses the Test Environment with Your User ID is authorised by You to use the Test Environment on Your behalf.
3.2. You must establish and maintain appropriate measures to safeguard the Approved Interface, Service and System from unauthorised access through the User ID.
3.3. You must ensure that any User ID (i) is kept safe and secure (ii) is not disclosed to another person who is not authorised by You to act on Your behalf (iv) is only used to access an Approved Interface within the Test Environment.
3.4. You shall notify RoS immediately if You have grounds for suspecting that a person has discovered or is making use of a User ID without Your authorisation.
3.5. You must immediately withdraw access to the System from any User
3.5.1. who is suspected of exercising an unauthorised use of, or access to, the System or Test Environment, or unauthorised use of the Service or any other breach of these Conditions of Use;
3.5.2. who has been involved in an improper use of the Service and/or Test Environment or breach of these Conditions of Use; or
3.5.3. whose circumstances have changed such that the User is no longer authorised to act on Your behalf in respect of the Test Environment, or the Service;
and You shall take reasonable steps to ensure that such User ceases to have access to the System and prevent a reoccurrence of any of the above issues, including but not limited to amending relevant passwords for a User ID, or requesting that RoS cancel a User ID and issue a replacement.
3.6. You are responsible for providing training to Users on access to and use of the Service and Test Environment. You shall ensure that all Users are suitable and sufficiently competent and that the Users use the Service and the Test Environment in accordance with these Conditions of Use, and have read and understand the User Policy.
3.7. You must ensure that the number of Users authorised to use the Service and Test Environment is not greater than that reasonably required by You to fulfil Your business needs.
3.8. You are bound by and liable for the acts and omissions of, and any breaches of these Conditions of Use, by Users, as if they were Your acts omissions and breaches.
4. USE
4.1. You and Your Users must
4.1.1. only use the Service and Test Environment for (i) the Evaluation Use for an Evaluation Interface and (ii) the Training Use for the Training Interface, all in accordance with the Conditions of Use;
4.1.2. not use the Address Data in any other way, without first obtaining express consent from Royal Mail: address.management@royalmail.com;
4.1.3. only use the Service and Test Environment in a manner that is lawful. Specifically, You must ensure that You and Your Users comply fully with any and all local, national or international laws and/or regulations, and must not use the Service, or the Test Environment, in any way, or for any purpose, that is unlawful or fraudulent;
4.1.4. not use the Service or Test Environment to claim any arrangement or official partnership with RoS to supply or reuse data and/or information;
4.1.5. not reproduce any Test Environment or a service comprising information extracted from the Service;
4.1.6. not attempt to rectify, or permit any other person to rectify, any fault or inaccuracy in the System, or otherwise attempt to make any deletions, additions, alterations or adjustments to the System, or the Service. For the avoidance of doubt this does not prohibit a valid Evaluation Use when using the Equipment and Software in accordance with these Conditions of Use;
4.1.7. not use the System or the Service in any way that causes any damage or interruption to the System, Service or any Approved Interface;
4.1.8. except as is necessary for the purposes of Evaluation Use, not conduct any manual, systematic or automated data collection activities on or in relation to the System, any part of it, or any information contained in it (including without limitation, data scraping, data mining, data extraction and/or data harvesting) or otherwise use any manual, systematic or automated process, device, program, algorithm or methodology to monitor or copy any of the material or information on or in relation to the System.
4.1.9. without prejudice to the generality of Clause 4.1.8 except where permitted in terms of the Evaluation Use, not use or attempt to use or permit the use of any automated software agents or any other device, routine, programme, algorithm, methodology, process means, including, without limitation any web scraper, spider, robot or web crawler, to access or attempt to access the System for any purpose including without limitation to search, copy, acquire, monitor or obtain links to the System or any part of it or any information contained in it; and
4.1.10. not use the System or the Service in any way that causes an adverse effect on the operation, security, integrity, stability or overall efficiency of the Service and/or Approved Interface, or any damage, impairment or interruption to the System and/or Service in any way.
5. DATA PROTECTION
5.1. For the purposes of this clause 5, the terms “Controller”, “Personal Data”, “Process” shall have the meaning prescribed under Data Protection Legislation.
5.2. You shall duly observe all obligations under Data Protection Legislation which arise in connection with the use of the Service.
5.3. Notwithstanding the generality of clause 5.2, You acknowledge and agree that You are the Controller as regards the processing by You and any of Your Users of any Personal Data submitted to the Approved Test Environment or obtained by You in connection with Your use of the Service and that You shall
5.3.1. not use the Service or Test Environment in any way which in RoS’s reasonable opinion is not compliant with the Data Protection Legislation or which causes or would be reasonably likely to cause RoS to be in breach of the Data Protection Legislation or to suffer or incur any Data Protection Losses. If You do not comply with this clause it shall constitute a material breach of these Conditions of Use for the purposes of clause 10, without prejudice to any other rights and remedies which RoS may have, whether in terms of these Conditions of Use or otherwise, and may lead to immediate suspension of Your access to the System and the Service in terms of clause 10;
5.3.2. indemnify RoS and keep RoS indemnified in respect of all Data Protection Losses suffered or incurred by, awarded against or agreed to be paid by RoS arising from or in connection with any breach by You or any of Your Users of any of its obligations under these Conditions of Use; and
5.3.3. ensure Users only insert Dummy Data when using the Test Environment.
This clause 5.3 is intended to apply to the allocation of liability for Data Protection Losses as between the parties, including with respect to compensation to Data Subjects, notwithstanding any provisions under Data Protection Legislation to the contrary, except to the extent not permitted by law.
5.4. RoS may collect information about You, and Your Users including Personal Data, and RoS may use that information for the following purposes:
5.4.1. Monitoring Your and Your Users, use of the System to ensure compliance with these Conditions of Use;
5.4.2. For statistical and reporting purposes; and
5.4.3. To help RoS identify and implement improvements to the System and the Service.
For further information see our Privacy Statement.
6. EQUIPMENT AND SECURITY
6.1. The Equipment and Software must be sufficient to access the Service via the internet (or such other means of electronic access as RoS may reasonably require from time to time). RoS shall have no obligation or liability in respect of any defect or failure of the Equipment or Software.
6.2. RoS may at any time immediately require the Equipment and Software or any parts to be disconnected if in RoS’s opinion it has been the cause of, or a contributory factor, or is likely to be the cause of failures, interruptions, errors or other defects in the Service, System, Database or any Interface.
6.3. The Equipment and Software must not adversely affect or corrupt the System, Test Environment or Interface software or any other software which may be used by RoS.
6.4. Ros is not responsible for protecting any hardware, software, data and other material from viruses, malware, and other internet security risks when You or Your Users interact with the Service or System.
6.5. RoS will exercise all reasonable skill and care to ensure that the System is secure and free from viruses and other malware.
6.6. No viruses or other malware, or any other material which is malicious or technologically harmful either to the System or the Service will be introduced by You and/or any User.
6.8. Unauthorised access to or modification of computer material may bea criminal offence under the Computer Misuse Act 1990. Any and all such breaches will be reported to the relevant law enforcement authorities. Your access to the System and the Service will cease immediately in the event of such a breach.
7. PROPRIETARY RIGHTS
7.1. You shall not, and ensure that Your Users shall not, infringe RoS’s or any Interested Party’s Intellectual Property Rights in the System, and/or the RoS Database.
7.2. All Content and the copyright and other intellectual property rights subsisting in the Content, belong to or have been licensed by RoS and shall remain vested in RoS. You are permitted to use the Content only for Evaluation Use or Training Use as expressly authorised in these Conditions of Use and must not use them for any purpose other than in connection with its authorised use of the Service.
7.3. You may not reproduce, copy, distribute, sell, rent, sub-licence, store, or in any other manner re-use Content unless given express written permission to do so by RoS.
7.4. The Test Environment is Crown Copyright. The Keeper of the Registers of Scotland has delegated authority from the Kings Printer in Scotland to authorise the reproduction of Crown Copyright materials created by RoS.
7.5. No Intellectual Property Right in the Address Data is conferred or granted to You or any User. You and Your Users acknowledge that the Address Data may include Intellectual Property Rights which are owned and licenced to RoS by an Interested Party.
8. DISCLAIMER
8.1. RoS makes no representation, warranty, or guarantee that the Service or Test Environment will be available, uninterrupted, will remain as is without change, will meet Your requirements, that it will not infringe the rights of third parties, that it will be compatible with all the Equipment and Software, or that it will be secure.
8.2. RoS reserves the right to suspend access to the System, Service and/or Approved Interface for the purposes of investigation, repair, maintenance or support of or changes to any of these, or if there is or if RoS believes there to be any fault in any of these or in the delivery of the Service. RoS will have no liability for any losses of whatever nature or howsoever arising due to the unavailability during that time.
8.3. RoS reserves the right to change the specification for Equipment and Software needed to access the System and/or Approved Infrastructure.
9. LIABILITY
9.1. To the extent not prohibited by law, in no event shall RoS be liable for any damages including (without limitation) for any loss of use, loss of data, lost profits, business interruption, or any indirect, incidental or consequential damages, arising out of or related to any interruption, temporary or otherwise, in the availability of the System, accessibility of the Service or Approved Interface or loss or damage to Equipment and Software.
9.2. To the fullest extent permissible by law, RoS excludes all representations, warranties, and guarantees (whether express or implied) for the Service or any part of the System.
9.3. RoS accepts no liability for any loss or damage resulting from a virus or other malware, a distributed denial of service attack, or other harmful material or event that may adversely affect Your hardware, software, data or other material that occurs as a result of use of Service in any way.
9.4. Nothing in these Conditions of Use excludes or restricts RoS’s liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, for death or personal injury resulting from negligence, or for any other forms of liability which cannot be excluded or restricted by law.
9.5. You shall indemnify and keep indemnified RoS and/or any Interested Party against all their liabilities and losses and all demands, liabilities, claims made, or proceedings brought, against RoS and/or any Interested Party in respect of any loss or damage and against all costs and expenses reasonably incurred in dealing with or in settling such demands, liabilities, claims or proceedings arising from the acts, omissions or defaults of You or Your Users relating to Conditions of Use, except to the extent that any such liability is directly attributable to any negligent act of RoS.
10. TERMINATION
10.1. RoS may terminate any User IDs so as to end Your use of the Service without notice and take such action as is necessary including suspending or cancelling access to the Service or any Approved Interface if
10.1.1. You or any User misuses any element of the System or Service or Approved Interface; or
10.1.2. RoS has reason to suspect use of the Service or System for fraudulent or other unlawful purpose or activity which is not in accordance with the Evaluaiton Use or the Training Use set out in these Conditions of Use.
10.2. RoS may terminate Your use of the Service or an Approved Interface by written notice to You where:
10.2.1. You or a User commits a material breach of these Conditions of Use and RoS in their absolute discretion consider the breach to be capable of being remedied and serves a notice on You requesting the remedy but You fail, within 7 days after such a written request by RoS, to remedy the breach;
10.2.2. You have a receiver or liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy appointed over any part of Your undertaking or assets, or a resolution for Your winding up is passed, or You become insolvent or subject to an administration order, or You enter into any voluntary arrangement with creditors;
10.2.3. You cease or intend to cease to carry on business or no longer holds the professional criteria that permitted You access to the Service or any one of the Approved Interface; or
10.2.4. RoS ceases to operate the Service or any Approved Interface for any reason.
10.3. You may on notice terminate use of the Service or an Approved Interface at any time by 5 days written notice to RoS.
10.4. RoS may automatically terminate the Service for any User ID that has not been used to gain access to an Approved Interface for a period of 180 days RoS, without giving prior notice.
10.5. All Your User IDs shall be cancelled with effect from the relevant Termination Date.
11. VARIATION
11.1. RoS may revise these Conditions of Use from time to time. Any such changes will become binding on You upon Your first use of the Service after the changes have been implemented. You are therefore advised to check this from time to time.
11.2. In the event of any conflict between the current version of these Conditions of Use and any previous version(s), the provisions current and in effect shall prevail unless it is expressly stated otherwise.
12. JURISDICTION
12.1. These Conditions of Use are to be governed and construed according to Scots law. Any dispute arising under them will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.
ANNEX 1
Acceptable Use Policy for the use of the Register of Scotland Test Environment (“The Service”)
1. You may only use the Service in a manner that is lawful. Specifically, you must ensure that you comply fully with any and all local, national or international laws and/or regulations, and you must not use this in any way, or for any purpose, that is unlawful or fraudulent.
2. You may only use the Service for a Training Use (training within a Training Interface) or an Evaluation Use (evaluation of a new product within an Evaluation Interface) all as set out in the Conditions of Use, and not for any other purpose.
3. You must comply with all organisational and technical measures for use of the Service, including training protocols, protection of passwords and non sharing of the account information with any person who has not been directly authorised to use the Service.
4. If you are permitted to access the Service, you may only enter fictional data which is not based on real people or property and does not constitute personal data.
5. You must only access the Service if you are authorised to access the System.
6. You must not:
(a) share the password or account information for the Service with any other person
(b) except where necessary and permitted for the purposes of an Evaluation Use
(i) use any automated software agents to search, copy, monitor, display, obtain links to or otherwise access the Service
(ii) copy or display any of the content in the Test Environment for display (including screenshots or photographs) on another website or online in any manner.
(c) except where necessary and permitted for the purposes of an Evaluation Use or a Training Use, attempt to add, change or delete any content on the Test Environment or system of which it forms part
(d) use the content to claim any arrangement or official partnership with Registers of Scotland to supply or reuse data and/or information
(e) use the content for any fraudulent or unlawful activity, including any that breaches Data Protection Law or constitutes an authorised use of third party Intellectual Property Rights
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