Avonweb Publishers Guidelines December 2003

 

  1. Anyone publishing to Avonweb must follow the National NHS Web Guidelines covering the use of – NHS logo, colours, fonts, language, images, disabilities, frames, scripts etc http://www.doh.gov.uk/nhsidentity/websites.htm If you are publishing information for use by the public you should ensure that the content is appropriate for the audience. Advice is available from Colin.Gray@aimtc.nhs.uk - web co-ordinator information for the public.

 

  1. User Organisations publishing Policy

·         Your own organisation may have a Web Publishing and Web Use policy of its own. Please ensure that you are complying with this before publishing to Avonweb

·         In the event of a conflict between the user organisations policy and these guidelines, the guidelines will prevail

·         Advertising or sponsorship of external products or services is forbidden without the approval of the Web Editorial Board

 

  1. Site Ownership

·         The director of an organisation or department must approve a web site.

·         Where organisations have more than one website a coordinated approach must be maintained.

 

  1. Maintenance

·         The author, date of the publication and review date should be contained within the web. Material should be reviewed at a minimum of 12 monthly intervals and obsolete material removed.

·         Links to external sources should be checked for redundancy every 6 months.  User organisations must acknowledge that the Avon IM&T Consortium is not responsible for the availability of such sites, nor does it endorse the content of such sites and is not liable for any content, advertising, products or materials available from such external sites

·         The Avon IM&T Consortium shall not be liable either directly or indirectly for a damage or loss caused by the use of links to external sources.

·         Duplication of material must be avoided. Ideally only one document should exist for a given subject on NHSnet or WWW Avonweb. Use links to avoid duplication.

·         Do not rely on the unique skills of one individual to maintain the site for ever

·         Keep a copy of your live site           

 

  1. Avonweb Templates

For such sites the Avonweb Team will resolve technical problems that are to do with the server. However where templates are not used the Avonweb Team will not resolve technical problems arising out of the site design

                        http://www.avon.nhs.uk/avon/web_services/site_hosting_service.htm

·         Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the templates work effectively the consortium cannot guarantee their function under all possible circumstances.

 

 

 

  1. Publishing consent

·         Publish information, images or documents only with the consent of the Copyright Owner. For images the consent of the subject is also required

·         In line with the Data Protection Act 1998 publish individual contact details only with the specific consent of the owner of those details. Each user organisation must ensure that their notification under this act covers the publication of such details on a website.

·         Make sure you are publishing to the appropriate audience – the public do not have access to NHSnet Avonweb sites.

·         Do not publish patient identifiable information on public or NHSnet site. Web sites containing patient identifiable material must be encrypted. Seek advice from the Avonweb team before creating your web site.

·         If in doubt consult your Caldicott guardian or the IM&T Consortium Information Governance Team for advice.

 

  1. Legal Issues and Indemnity

7.1            Compliance with Legislation

The Avon IM&T Consortium is providing a hosting service to organisations wishing to publish websites.  Whilst Avon IM&T Consortium will endeavour to ensure that material posted is suitable for publication, the responsibility for compliance with appropriate legislation will lie with the publishing organisation.

      The appropriate legislation will include

·         The Data Protection Act

http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/)

·         Copyright Designs and Patents Act – any publishing organisation is responsible for ensuring appropriate copyright permission prior to publication http://www.patent.gov.uk/   http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/

·         Computer Misuse Act – authorised publishers will ensure that the facilities are not misused, and that inappropriate material is not published

http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900018_en_1.htm

·         Obscene Publications Act – authorised publishers will ensure that any material published does not contravene the obscene publications Act

The "Obscene Publications Act 1959 and 1964" states that an article shall be deemed to be obscene if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it.

It is an offence to publish an obscene article or to have an obscene article in ownership, possession or control with a view to publishing it or, where the data is stored electronically, to transmit that data.

more

 

·         The "Telecommunications Act 1984" makes it an offence to send 'by means of a public telecommunications system, a message or other matter that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character' and is an imprisonable offence with a maximum term of six months

 

7.2       Avonweb ‘clients shall not post, publish, transmit, re-transmit or store material on or through any of the Avonweb systems, services or products which

·         Violates any law or regulation which is enforceable in the United Kingdom

·         Is threatening, obscene, indecent, defamatory or blasphemous

·         Is calculated to incite hatred against any minority on the basis their of ethnicity, religion, gender and sexuality or is otherwise intended to adversely affect any individual, group or entity

·         Violates the rights of any person, including the rights of privacy, rights of personality

·         Infringes or breaches any third party intellectual property rights (including but not limited to copyrights, trademarks, design rights, trade secrets patents, moral rights,  performance rights, registered and unregistered trademarks) Breach of copyright includes the installation or distribution of “pirated” software or other software products that are not appropriately licensed to the Avonweb client. Such activity will constitute a violation of intellectual property rights.  In the event of any disagreement as to whether materials posted, transmitted, re-transmitted or stored by a customer are in contravention of this section, the decision of Avon IM&T Consortium shall be final.

·         Discloses confidential information without permission of the owner

·         Impersonates other individuals or misrepresent themselves

·         Harasses, threatens, defames, or otherwise causes harm or damage to other persons, institutions, or companies.

·         Constitutes political lobbying

·         Could serve for personal gain.

·         Incites illegal activities

·         Avonweb clients shall not post, transmit, re-transmit or publish unsolicited promotional or advertising material, chain letters or pyramid selling schemes

·         Avonweb clients shall not undertake any activity designed or likely to corrupt, interfere with or destroy another Avonweb client’s data or violate that client’s privacy.

·         Avonweb clients shall not send or forward malicious software or viruses

·         Avonweb clients will not promote personal opinion that might be interpreted as the views of their organisation. Only staff authorised by their employing organisation are able to state the views of the organisation via this media.

·         Avonweb clients shall not upload, post or otherwise transmit any content that they do not have rights to make available under any law or contractual relationship.

 

7.3      Avon IM&T Consortium is not responsible for Content

Avon IM&T Consortium is not responsible for the content of any posting whether or not the posting was made by a ‘client’ of Avon IM&T Consortium. Avon IM&T Consortium is not responsible for the content of materials and information published by others, which are accessible through Avonweb, and does not accept responsibility for the violation of any laws resulting from such publication.

 

7.4 Removal of Materials

The Avon IM&T Consortium does not pre-screen content published by its clients.  At it’s sole discretion Avon IM&T Consortium has the right (but not the obligation) to refuse or move materials from it’s servers, and to terminate access to clients that Avon IM&T Consortium determines have violated the conduct rules.

 

The Avon IM&T Consortium may reserve content and also disclose content if required to do so by law or in good faith believe that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to:

 

a)      comply with the legal process

b)      enforce the publishing guidelines

c)      respond to claims that the content violates the rights of third parties

d)      protect the rights, property or personal safety of its users and the public

 

7.5 Collection of personal data on Avonweb hosted sites

Any Avonweb client who wishes to collect personal data from individuals, by either direct (form/email based) or indirect (e.g cookies, web-bugs, IP address profiling etc) is responsible for ensuring such activity is legally compliant with appropriate acts such as Data Protection and Human Rights.  The use of web technologies, such as 'cookies' or 'web-bugs' to collect personal information on individuals is discouraged.  As a minimum any site collecting personal information must highlight that data is collected and publish a 'privacy policy' that is accessible from all points of the site.

 

Under Data Protection legislation, the 'Data controller' who has responsibility for the protection and security of personal information is the Avonweb client and not the Avon IM&T Consortium. Avon IM&T Consortium will only act on instructions from clients with regard to processing of personal data and the provision of appropriate technical and organisational security measures.

 

Avonweb clients wishing to process personal information are directed to the Information Commissioners Frequently Asked Questions on websites and personal information available at:

 

http://www.dataprotection.gov.uk/media/download/faqsweb.pdf

 

 

7.6 Statement of Indemnity

In consideration of the provision of service in accordance with the guidelines all user organisations agree to indemnify the Avon IM&T Consortium against any liability, which may be incurred by such a person or authority as a result of the provision of such service.

 

Whilst the Consortium undertakes all possible endeavours to provide consistency of service, user organisations agree to indemnify the Avon IM&T Consortium of any liability for loss resulting from inability to use the service or the conduct of third parties in relation to the service or any other matter relating to the service.

Termination

Breach of the guidelines will result in investigation and potential temporary or permanent suspension of service by the Avon IM&T Consortium to user organisations, dependant on the nature of the breach. User organisations agree to indemnify the Avon IM&T consortium of any liability resulting from the removal of service following breach of the guidelines, in relation to either the partner organisation or any third party.