Terms & Conditions.

Terms & Conditions for use of this site and Complaint Policy.

Terms & Conditions for use of this site.
Our Complaint Policy.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR USE OF THIS SITE.

Please read this page carefully. Your use of this site constitutes your agreement to be bound by the following terms and conditions. We reserve the right to change these terms and conditions at any time, so you should read this page each time you access the site.

For your convenience, changes to the terms and conditions generally will be noted in the "Changes" section for one month after a change becomes effective. Any change will be effective immediately, however, and need not be noted in the "Changes" section to be binding upon all subsequent visitors to the site.

Changes

There have been no changes to the terms and conditions governing your use of this site during the past month.

Disclaimers and Limitations of Warranties

This site is provided as a research and reference tool. Although we make every reasonable effort to ensure that the information, analytical tools and data provided at this site are useful, accurate, and current, we cannot guarantee that the information, tools and data provided here will be error-free. By using this site, you assume all responsibility for and risk arising from your use of and reliance upon the contents of this site.

This site and the information available through it do not, and are not intended to constitute legal advice. Should you require legal advice, you should consult your own attorney. References and links to products and services belonging to third parties are provided for your convenience and do not represent our endorsement of such products or services. Materials accessible from or added to this site by third parties, such as comments posted in chat groups, on bulletin boards or similar fora, are strictly the responsibility of the third party who added such materials or made them accessible and we neither endorse nor undertake to control, monitor, edit or assume responsibility for any such third-party material.

You may NOT submit or upload statements, data, or materials to PublicSquare.uk that (i) are harassing, threatening, obscene, defamatory, racially or sexually offensive, invasive of others' privacy, or otherwise unlawful, (ii) contain viruses or other harmful computer code or data, or (iii) in our judgment have the effect of disrupting others' use of PublicSquare.uk. "Unlawful" as used here means, without limitation, violation of any civil or criminal laws and the unauthorized use of proprietary materials owned by others, such as text and audio-visual material protected by copyright, trademarks and logos, and commercial uses of the name or likeness of persons living or dead.

You may NOT use PublicSquare.uk to advertise any product or service without our prior written consent. You agree that PublicSquare.uk has the right, but not the obligation, to delete statements, data, or materials that you submit or upload to the site that violate these guidelines or any of the terms of this Agreement. PublicSquare.uk does not have the ability or the intention to pre-screen or edit statements, data, and materials submitted or posted to the site by you or third parties. Accordingly, you agree that PublicSquare.uk shall have no liability to you or any third party for statements, data, or materials posted to the site or for the removal of such materials if it is brought to our attention and deemed by us to be in violation of this Agreement.

We expect that this site will be available to authorized users 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but we cannot guarantee such availability. We will not be liable for any delay or temporary disruption in access, no matter for how long, due either to technical problems or to circumstances beyond our control. If you need access to our products during such a disruption in access to this site, please contact us to make alternative delivery arrangements.

This site and its contents are provided "as is." We disclaim all warranties, express and implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability and of fitness for a particular purpose with respect to any information contained on, accessible through or derived by you from this site and with respect to any products or services purchased by you through this site. We likewise disclaim any and all liability to you arising out of interruption or damage to your computer system or software as the result of accessing or otherwise using this site. We neither warrant nor represent that the services or information available through this site will enable you to achieve any particular result or outcome, legal economic, education, or otherwise. We will not be liable for any incidental, indirect, consequential, special, punitive or exemplary damages of any kind, including lost revenues, lost profits, or loss of data arising out of your use of this site. In the event that any of the foregoing limitations and disclaimers is ineffective, you agree that our maximum liability to you shall be the total of the fees you have paid to us in connection with your access to this site and/or for products or services you have purchased from us through this site.

Copyrights and Trademarks

This site as a whole is copyrighted as a collective work, and individual works appearing on or accessible through this site are likewise subject to copyright protection. You agree to honour the copyrights in this site (including the selection, coordination and arrangement of the contents of this site) and in the works available on or through this site. In addition, trademarks and tradedress belonging to us or to third parties appear on this site or are accessible through this site. The fact that we have permitted you access to this site does not constitute authorization to reproduce such trademarks for any other purpose.

By submitting any material to us, such as by posting a comment to a chat group or a bulletin board, or by sending us an e-mail or other form of message, you are thereby granting us a non-exclusive license to reproduce, display, distribute, modify and create derivative works from such material and to use such material and the fact of your authorship of it for marketing purposes. We reserve the right to remove from the site material submitted by third parties.

Termination of Site and Site Access

We reserve the right to change the contents of this site or to discontinue it at any time, as well as the right to deny access to the site to any person whom we have reasonable grounds to believe may be using the site for an unlawful or unauthorized purpose or in a manner that may harm us.

Miscellaneous

This agreement will be governed by the laws of England and the United Kingdom, without regard to choice of law principles.

By continuing to use this site you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions.

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COMPLAINTS POLICY OF JNPMedia.

1. JNPMedia (‘We’ or ‘Us’) view complaints as an opportunity to learn and improve the quality of our journalism and the contents of our publication(s) for the future, as well as a chance to put things right for the person (or organisation) that has made the complaint.

2. Our policy is:
• To provide a fair complaints procedure that is clear, convenient and easy to use for anyone wishing to make a complaint (in particular those that are vulnerable or who have disabilities)
• To uphold and adhere to the Standards Code (“Code”) set out in the IMPRESS Regulatory Scheme in our assessment of all complaints
• To publicise the existence of our complaints procedure so that readers know how to contact us to make a complaint
• To make sure everyone working for us knows what to do if a complaint is received
• To make sure all complaints are dealt with promptly and fairly, with decisions based on sufficient investigation of the circumstances and (where appropriate) offer a suitable remedy
• To make sure that complaints are, wherever possible, resolved and that trust in our journalism and our publication(s) remains strong
• To gather information about all the complaints we receive to help continually improve the quality of our journalism and our publication(s)
• To submit an annual report to IMPRESS of all complaints received and their outcomes
• To submit any complaint that is not resolved by us in a timely or satisfactory way to IMPRESS and to comply with directions issued by IMPRESS relating to its Regulatory Scheme
• To make available to all our employees a confidential whistleblowing hotline which is independently operated by IMPRESS and not to take any action to the detriment of anyone who uses the hotline or declines to breach the Code.

Definition of a Complaint

3. A complaint is any expression of dissatisfaction, whether justified or not, about the editorial content, standards of journalism or conduct of employees or contributors involved in production of our publication(s) that engages the standards set out in the Code.

Who Can Complain and How?

4. Complaints may come from any person or organisation who is:
• personally and directly affected by an alleged breach of the Code
• a representative group affected by an alleged breach of the Code, where there is public interest in the complaint
• a third party seeking to ensure accuracy of published information

5. A complaint should be received by email or in writing although complaints are accepted by other reasonable means where it is not convenient or practical for the individual complainant to complain in writing.

6. A complaint should be clearly marked as such. General enquiries and requests for corrections will not normally be dealt with as a complaint under this policy unless the complainant makes it clear that they wish to make a complaint.

Whistleblowing Rights of Employees and Contributors

7. Employees or contributors are encouraged to contact the IMPRESS confidential whistleblowing hotline (“the Hotline”) if they are being pressurised to breach the standards set out in the Code or if they have concerns that the standards set out in the Code are not being adhered to more generally by Us.

8. We will publicise the contact details of the Hotline to all our employees and contributors.

9. Any employee or contributor of who uses the Hotline does so with Our full support and in the knowledge that they will not be sanctioned as a result of doing so,

10. We guarantee to protect all whistle-blowers from possible reprisals, victimisation or sanction if a disclosure has been made in good faith even if a subsequent independent investigation carried out by IMPRESS into our journalism finds there to be no breach of the Code or of the IMPRESS Regulatory Scheme. For the avoidance of doubt, We will not take any action to the detriment of anyone who uses the IMPRESS whistleblowing hotline or declines to breach the Standards Code adopted by Us as part of our compliance with the IMPRESS Regulatory Scheme.

Confidentiality

11. All complaint information will be handled sensitively, telling only those who need to know and following any relevant data protection requirements.

Compliance Records

12. In respect of each title We will maintain a written record of all complaints, to include the name and contact details of the complainant, the material or conduct in respect of which the complaint is made and the alleged Code breach.

13. For each complaint record, We will include any steps taken by Us to address the complaint, and the outcome of the complaint. This record will be made available to IMPRESS and to the public (in a redacted form, where necessary), for publication by IMPRESS in its annual report.

14. We will report to IMPRESS all compliance failures of which We become aware (whether complained about or not)

15. Monitoring and learning from complaints are reviewed quarterly by Us to identify any trends which may indicate a need to take further action.

Responsibility

16. Overall responsibility for this policy and its implementation lies with our Management Team.

17. Responsibility for ensuring that complaints are managed in accordance with this policy lies with a nominated senior legal and compliance standards individual for each title.

18. Each title shall include a statement of arrangements which includes details of the internal authority structure, where responsibilities for Code compliance lie, to whom notice of failure in compliance would be reported (whether complained about or not), together with steps to deal with any failures in compliance.

Procedure

Stage One: Making a Complaint

1. Information on how to make a complaint is clearly publicised in the “Terms and Conditions” section of our publication.

2. Complaints may be sent in writing to Us by e-mail at complaint@jnpmdia.com or telephone on 02032900774 or other reasonable means where this is more convenient and practical for the complainant.

3. Complainants should provide the following information before their complaint will be considered:
• The complainant's name, address, e-mail address and telephone number
• If the complaint is about a news article it must include:

the name and date of the publication and page reference of the specific article being complained about plus the URL.
URL/Link to any visual or audio element of the complaint.
a written account of what is being complained about with clear reference made to (i) any specific words or phrases in the article that are relevant to the complaint; and (ii) any clauses of the Standards Code adopted by IMPRESS (“Code”) that the complainant believes to have been breached
The desired outcome or remedy sought by the complainant

• If the complaint is about the conduct or behaviour of an employee or contributor it must include:

the name(s) of the individual(s) being complained about (if known) or any other information which may identify the individual (s)
a written account of what is being complained about with clear
reference made to (i) the nature of the behaviour or conduct being complained about including any relevant times, dates, correspondence or other evidence to support the complaint; and (ii) any clauses of the Code that the complainant believes to have been breached
The desired outcome or remedy sought by the complainant

4. We will make reasonable efforts to contact a complainant by telephone, e-mail or in writing to ensure that sufficient information is provided to respond to the complaint.

Making a complaint

We can look into complaints about items we have published which are in our control. We adhere to the Standards Code adopted by IMPRESS and can only deal with complaints which relate to an alleged breach of the standards set out in this Code. (http://www.impress.press/standards/)

We can only deal with your complaint if you are:
- personally and directly affected by an alleged breach of the Code
- a representative group affected by an alleged breach of the Code, where there is
public interest in your complaint
- a third party seeking to ensure accuracy of published information

We are also regulated by IMPRESS, but initial complaints must be made to us JNPMedia in writing at the following address:
e-mail: complaint@jnpmdia.com
Telephone: 02032900774
Address: Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London, England, EC1V 2NX

We will acknowledge your complaint by e-mail or in writing within 7 calendar days and will normally respond to your complaint with a final decision letter within 21 calendar days. If we uphold your complaint, we will tell you the remedial actions we have taken. If you are not satisfied with the final response to your complaint, or if you do not hear from us within 21 calendar days of submitting your complaint, then you can refer your complaint to our Independent regulator IMPRESS at the following address:

Stage Two – Recording, Investigating and Resolving the Complaint

5. The complaint information should be passed to the person we have nominated as being responsible for legal standards and compliance. They will record it in the complaints log and will acknowledge receipt of the complaint by e-mail or in writing within 7 calendar days of receipt of the complaint.

6. The acknowledgement of receipt of a complaint should say who is dealing with the complaint and when the person complaining can expect a reply. Any conflicts of interest should also be declared at this point. A copy of this complaints policy should be attached.

7. The legal standards and compliance contact is responsible for ensuring that the circumstances of the complaint are investigated fairly and that any conflicts of interest are managed. This may require the complainant to provide additional information, documents or other evidence to support their complaint.

8. Complainants should receive a final decision letter within 21 calendar days from the date of the receipt of the complaint.

9. The final decision letter will inform complainants that they have the right to refer their complaint to IMPRESS, stating the applicable time limits, set out in clause 4.4 of the IMPRESS Regulatory Scheme, and how to contact IMPRESS.

10. Whether the complaint is justified or not, the reply to the complainant should describe the action taken to investigate the complaint, the conclusions from the investigation, and any action taken as a result of the complaint.

Stage Three – Escalating the Complaint to IMPRESS

11. If the complainant feels that the problem has not been satisfactorily resolved by Us at Stage Two or if the complainant feels that there are justifiable reasons why the complaint is so urgent that they cannot wait for Us to respond, they can request that the complaint is reviewed by IMPRESS in accordance with its Regulatory Scheme, by contacting IMPRESS using the following details.

Review

12. This policy is reviewed regularly and updated as required.

Adopted on: 28 February 2018
Last reviewed: 15 March 2024