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Terms & Conditions

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Definitions

  1. Website means this Website www.publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk.
  2. SPPD means the Scottish Ministers acting through the SCOTTISH PROCUREMENT AND PROPERTY DIRECTORATE, Atlantic Quay, Broomielaw, Glasgow, G2 8LU.
  3. Operators means SPPD and Proactis.
  4. Proactis means Proactis Tenders Limited (Company number SC115090) registered office: AB1, First Floor, 48 Huntly Street, Aberdeen, AB10 1SH, the company with responsibility for providing the Website and managing it on a day-to-day basis.
  5. Services means all of the functional Services provided to Users through the Website including creation of tender notices, uploading of tender documentation, downloading of documents, posting of questions and answers, online submission of tenders and other general services.
  6. Buyer means any buyer wishing to advertise public contracts and contract awards, or any private sector contractor wishing to advertise sub-contracts and awards relating to public contracts, on the Website.
  7. Supplier means any person wishing to tender for public contracts advertised on the Website.
  8. User means any registered Supplier or Buyer and any other user of the Website.
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Introduction

The use of the Website is governed by the terms and conditions set out below.

Please take the time to read them carefully. By using the Website you agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. If you do not agree with these terms and conditions your sole remedy is to discontinue using the Website.

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Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with Scots law and are subject to the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts.

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Alterations

SPPD reserves the right to modify the Website and add, amend or vary these terms and conditions. You are responsible for reviewing these terms and conditions and your continued use of the Website constitutes your agreement to any modified terms and conditions. SPPD shall endeavour, but shall be under no obligation, to publish notice of such modifications in the news section of the Website.

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Registration

Users do not have to register to access the Website but the Services may only be accessed by registered Buyers and Suppliers. The Operators may revoke the registration of any Buyer or Supplier who fails to comply with these terms and conditions.

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Website Content

The Operators have no responsibility for the accuracy, veracity and completeness of information uploaded by Registered Users and for any errors in the manner of its input.

Contract documentation uploaded to the website by registered buyers may not be amended, altered or modified in any way once it has been uploaded and must comply with current relevant legislation, including the Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014.

Registered Suppliers consent to the recording by the Operators of Suppliers use of the Services.

Users of the Website must not :

  • upload any information, including questions, which contain viruses or are defamatory or otherwise unlawful, malicious, abusive, frivolous or otherwise inappropriate;
  • circumvent or attempt to circumvent security measures or try to modify the Website content except as expressly permitted

The Operators may need to disclose information provided by registered Users as required by law or judicial order. Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, you should be aware that SPPD is subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 and the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 and the General Data Protection Regulations.

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Personal data

Any personal data processed by Proactis will be treated in line with the General Data Protection Regulations and processed for the purposes of 1. enabling Buyers to advertise public contract and sub-contract opportunities and awards and 2. enabling Suppliers to tender for such opportunities. For further details see the Privacy Policy.

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Communicating with users

From time to time, emails from the Website will be issued to registered Users with Website-pertinent information such as notification of major changes or problems with the Website. Occasionally, surveys to establish User satisfaction with the Website may be issued, as well as communications relating to the public procurement regime.

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Products

The Website accepts information uploaded by certain third party software products.

This facility does not:

  • imply approval of such products by the SPPD;
  • imply a preference of such products over any other similar product which does not provide the functionality to upload information to the site;
  • imply any liability on the Operators for the accuracy, veracity and completeness of information prepared by these products, and for any errors arising from the use of these products and for any damage arising from the use of these products.
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Liability

The Operators reserve the right to withdraw access to the Website or the Services at any time (whether in whole or in part) without notice.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the Operators shall not be liable for any delays, interruptions, errors or failures in the provision of the Services not within the reasonable control of the Operators including force majeure, failure or fluctuation of electrical power, industrial action, industrial disputes, breakdown or other malfunctions of the User’s or the Operators’ telephone or other technical equipment, including information technology software.

Insofar as permitted by law, the Operators shall not be liable, either in contract or in delict, for any direct, incidental, consequential, indirect or punitive damages or any other losses, costs, expenses or damage of any kind claimed to have arisen as a result of using this Website or as a result of the non-availability, non-functioning or malfunctioning of the Services or otherwise in connection therewith.

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Indemnity

Each User shall indemnify and hold the Operators harmless from any loss or damage suffered as a result of the User’s breach of any of these terms and conditions.

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Disclaimer

Information on the Website does not constitute legal or professional advice. The Operators:

  • do not accept responsibility expressed or implied for the accuracy, suitability, usefulness, and completeness or otherwise of the information contained on this Website;
  • do not warrant that the information contained on this Website is free from infection by computer viruses or that it does not infringe the intellectual property rights of any person anywhere in the world;
  • do not accept responsibility for any errors in uploading or downloading information from this site;
  • do not accept responsibility for non-adherence by Suppliers to the stipulated closing dates and times expressed in tender documents or otherwise amended by the relevant Buyer;
  • do not accept responsibility for the accuracy, suitability, usefulness, and completeness or otherwise for material contained on other websites linked to this Website. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time.

Our website does not endorse or favour any specific commercial product or business. Non-government sites linked to from this website are present only because they may be useful additions to the information we provide. A link to a third-party website does not imply endorsement - you must use your own judgement to decide whether the information or service on that website is suitable for your needs. If a website is not linked to ours, this does not mean or imply that it is unsatisfactory. Websites that we link to may have Terms and Conditions that are different from ours. Do not assume that our Terms and Conditions apply to other websites.

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Copyright and the Open Government License

Most of the material featured on this Website is subject to Crown copyright protection. However, you may use content published on this Website under the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. Full details of the licence are available here.

The permission to use Crown protected material does not extend to any material on this Website which is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to use such material must be obtained from the owners of the copyright material concerned.

If you intend to use information licensed under the Open Government License v3.0 you must include the following attribution statement:

“Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.”

If you are using Information from several Information Providers and listing multiple attributions is not practical in your product or application, you may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statement.

These are important conditions of this licence and if you fail to comply with them the rights granted to you under this licence, or any similar licence granted by the Licensor, will end automatically.

You may not use:

  • personal data in the Information;
  • Information that has not been accessed by way of publication or disclosure under information access legislation (including the Freedom of Information Acts for the UK and Scotland) by or with the consent of the Information Provider;
  • departmental or public sector organisation logos, crests and the Royal Arms except where they form an integral part of a document or dataset;
  • military insignia;
  • third party rights the Information Provider is not authorised to license;
  • other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade marks, and design rights; and
  • identity documents such as the British Passport.

Websites that we link to may have Terms and Conditions that are different from ours. Do not assume that our Terms and Conditions apply to other websites.

Any enquiries regarding the use of information made available under the Open Government Licence should be sent to e-mail:psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk

All names, images and logos which feature on this Website and which identify the Scottish Government are proprietary marks of the Scottish Government. In particular, we own the rights to the names and logos for Public Contracts Scotland and you may not use this name or logos in any advertising or promotional literature without our prior written consent. Copying or use of these logos and/or any other logos accessed via the Website is not permitted without prior approval from the relevant owner.

Requests for permission to use any names and/or logos should be directed to the Scottish Government, SPPD email: ScottishProcurement@Scotland.gsi.gov.uk

By uploading Content onto this Website, you grant to us a non-exclusive license to use that Content. Although you will still own the copyright in that Content, we will have the right to freely use, edit, alter, reproduce, publish and/or distribute the material contained in your Content. This license will be free of charge, perpetual and capable of sub-license and we may exercise all rights subsisting in your Content to their full extent and for the full period for which such rights exist.

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Management Information

The Scottish Ministers may occasionally use the data obtained to report on statistical management information. Additionally, the e-mail address of your company may also be used to contact your organisation in future. Your e-mail address will however not be passed onto any other third parties.

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Privacy Policy & Cookies

By using this website you agree to our Privacy Policy and use of Cookies.

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User Accounts, ID & Password

Your User ID and password are very important pieces of information and it is your responsibility to keep them secure. You agree to:

  • notify us immediately if you suspect your User ID and password has been or may be used by unauthorised persons;
  • be responsible for the management of information in your account. Where you use relevant services, you must:
  • Not send, state, publish, use or reuse any material which is offensive, abusive, defamatory, indecent, obscene, threatening or illegal or in breach of copyright, trade mark, confidence, privacy or any other rights
  • Not transmit any chain letters, spam letters, or junk email or participate in mischievous or malicious behaviour which causes or may cause damage, annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to this website or any other party
  • choose a new password whenever you are required to do so
  • keep your User ID and password confidential
  • be responsible for any transactions made by users you have authorised to use your User ID and password
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General

We, our suppliers and employees are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of, or reliance upon the information contained on our website, or any failure to comply with these terms and conditions, where such failure is due to circumstances beyond our reasonable control.

If we waive any rights available to us under these terms and conditions on an occasion, this does not mean that those rights will automatically be waived on any other or subsequent occasion.

If any part of these terms and conditions are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions shall nevertheless continue in full.

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