Governance of Britain

Privacy and data protection

We are committed to protecting your privacy on this site. Any personal information you provide will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. By using this site, you consent to the use of your personal data in accordance with the policies and guidelines below.

We will only use your personal data for a specific purpose(s), for example to respond to your request(s) for information and/or updates and to enable us to respond to direct correspondence. Direct correspondence with us includes telephone calls, letters, emails and any comment made through the site, such as discussion forums.

If you submit a comment on this site, including participation in any discussion forum, you will be asked to provide your email address. This will not be published, but will allow us to contact you directly if required, for example to invite you to re-submit a comment that has been rejected in accordance with the site’s editorial policy and user rules.

We will only share your information if we have your consent, or if we are required by law to respond to court orders or other legal processes.

The Governance of Britain website uses Google Analytics and Feedburner to help analyse how users use the site, and to provide users with updates on site activities. These analytical tools use ‘cookies’, which are text files placed on your computer, to collect standard internet log information and visitor behaviour information in an anonymous form. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) is transmitted to Google. This information is then used to evaluate visitors’ use of the website and to compile statistical reports on website activity for the Ministry of Justice. More information on Google Privacy Policies can be found here .

The Ministry of Justice will not (and will not allow any third party) to use the analytics tools to track or to collect any personally identifiable information of visitors to our site. We will not associate any data gathered from this site with any personally identifying information.

You have the right to ask for a copy of all personal data (about you) that the Ministry of Justice holds, and you may ask for any inaccuracies to be corrected. For questions relating to Ministry of Justice compliance with the Data Protection Act please contact the Information Rights Team on:

informationrights@justice.gsi.gov.uk or 020 7210 8034.

Disabling and enabling cookies

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings on your browser. You can find information on managing and deleting cookies here.

IP (Internet Protocol)

All networks connected to the internet speak IP, the technical standard which allows data to be transmitted between two devices. TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is responsible for making sure messages get from one host to another and that the messages are understood.

IP addressIf you are connected to the Internet you have an IP address.

Links to other sites

This privacy policy applies only to the Governance of Britain site. The Ministry of Justice is not responsible for the content of external sites. Links to external sites are not an endorsement.

Editorial policyWe encourage open and lively debate, but all site content is moderated (read and reviewed and may be edited) prior to publication on the site. Each item - including all comments in discussion forums - is considered on an individual basis and checked against the following requirements:

Any content offered, including views expressed in forums, will be rejected if the moderator decides it invades somebody else’s privacy, advocates violence, contains profanity, is inflammatory in nature, is not relevant to the subject, is culturally insensitive or is otherwise inappropriate. Content must not break the law, breach copyright, condone or promote illegal activity or be in contempt of Court. Content must not impersonate or falsely claim to represent another person or organisation, or be otherwise misrepresentative. Party political items will not be published, nor will advertisements for private interests. Information about community/non-profit/public events and activities will be individually assessed.Content that has been published will be removed if it is found to breach the requirements above or discussion user rules.

Emphasis is on interesting information written in plain-English that it is accessible to and generated by the general public.By submitting material, you grant the Ministry of Justice the right to reproduce, edit, publish and broadcast it. You retain copyright in your work. You may not reproduce other users’ material.

This policy is subject to change at any time, but we will notify you through this site of any changes. Policy changes will not apply retrospectively.

Footer to discussion forumsThe comments above are not Crown Copyright

Moderation

The Governance of Britain site is designed to enable knowledge exchange, disseminate quality resources and information, and encourage active discussion and participation. All content intended for publication on this site is read by Ministry of Justice staff who act as moderators.

All content will be checked and approved by the moderators before going live, in accordance with the site’s editorial policy and user rules. For discussion forums, any comment that is judged to breach the editorial policy or user rules will be deleted and will not be retained or stored in any form by the Ministry of Justice. If you have submitted a comment that is rejected, we will advise you by email and invite you to re-submit.

The moderator is responsible for making sure that discussion rules are observed. Depending on the nature of the discussion, the moderator will:

• act as chair
• encourage debate by asking questions (but will not offer opinions)

During the week posts will go live within 24 hours of submission. Posts made during the weekend will go live on the following Monday. Forum spaces are readable at all times and you can submit a post at any time. The moderator reserves the right to remove content after publication.

If you have any questions or complaints please contact the moderators directly at governance@justice.gsi.gov.uk

User rules for discussion forums

The Governance of Britain site is designed to enable knowledge exchange, disseminate quality resources and information, and encourage active discussion and participation. We appreciate your contribution to discussions on this site.

We welcome contributions from everyone, but if you are under 16 please get permission from a parent or guardian before participating.

Each time you participate, you agree to abide by the following rules:

• Stay on-topic. Don’t post messages that are unrelated to this online forum.
• Do not incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, sexuality or any other characteristic.
• Do not swear, use hate-speech or make obscene or vulgar comments.
• Do not break the law. This includes by way of example libel, breach of copyright, condoning illegal activity or being in contempt of court.
• Do not post personal information - addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other contact details, either those relating to yourself or others.
• Do not impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or an organisation.
• Do not add the same comment to more than one forum on this site.
• Avoid being party political - this is a Government website and comments used for party political purposes cannot be published.
• Be concise - other users are more likely to read your contribution if it is less than 200 words. Contributions may be edited to a more appropriate length before publication.
• Do not advertise products or services.
• Do not post in a language other than English.
• If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before participating in this online forum. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.
• Comments that violate any of the above rules will be removed.

Please remind yourself of these rules each time that you participate.