Terms and conditions of service

Updated 6 November 2024

Our agreement with you

  • Participatr Limited (we, us, our) will commence work only upon receipt of the signed agreement, including full details of the commissioning organisation (you, your) and a purchase order reference (if required for invoicing)
  • We reserve the right to decline any potential commission, regardless of whether our services have been committed to or included in any agreement where we not party to that agreement
  • All digital platform subscriptions are subject to a signed agreement between the you and us, and no commission will be deemed to be committed to, accepted and/or active until the agreement has been signed by both you and us
  • Our hourly rate for additional professional time incurred is £115 + VAT
  • No additional professional time will be incurred for services falling within the scope of the agreed activities and costs set out in the agreement, which are agreed at a fixed cost subject to our terms and conditions of service
  • Additional professional time for services not referenced in the agreed activities and costs set out in the agreement, and not referenced within the terms and conditions of service, will not be incurred without prior written agreement, separate to this agreement

Digital public participation platform (the platform) subscription

  • The platform subscription fixed cost is calculated on a fixed-term basis, as specified in the agreement, in 6 or 12 month increments
  • The minimum subscription fixed-term is 6 months and the minimum subscription extension is 6 months
  • The subscription can be used to facilitate public participation on one project or initiative (the project), which can include one or more discrete sub-projects
  • The platform and/or fixed-term subscription can not be transferred to or for use by another project or organisation under any circumstances
  • The platform subscription can be extended for a further 6 or 12 months (6 month minimum term) at any point during or within 3 months of the end of the subscription term 
  • Any subscription extension must be confirmed in writing by email prior to the extension commencing, including a purchase order reference (if required) to cover the additional cost
  • Attendance at (and/or travel to) additional project-related meetings is charged at the hourly rate in addition to any travel costs from our head office (BS1 5EH, UK)
  • Where any domain name originally requested and associated with the platform is replaced or supplemented with a new domain name, registration and set-up is charged at £115 + VAT per domain name
  • Domain name registration, for domains registered by us for association with the platform, can be transferred to you or a third-party at any time, on request
  • Once the fixed-term subscription ends (or at any point within the subscription period), the domain names registered and associated with the platform can be redirected to a third party website on request at no additional cost, and this redirection can remain in place until the domain name expiry or renewal date with the domain registrar
  • Registration will not be renewed by us for those domain names associated with fixed-term subscriptions that have expired and more than 3 months have elapsed since the end of the subscription period
  • The platform (front-end website, database or login-only dashboard system) can not be transferred to or managed by another web server or hosting provider at any time under any circumstances
  • The platform written content, imagery and any data collected on your behalf remains the intellectual property of you, and the website hosting, software, programming code and content management system remains the intellectual property of us at any times
  • The website content can not be transferred directly or systematically to a third-party hosting or content management system - should you wish to use a third-party content management system to host the content that the platform provides, it is your responsibility to upload the content to and curate the content on the third-party system and this service does not fall within the scope of the fixed-term subscription
  • We do not provide or use third-party hosting or content management systems as part of our service - all hosting and content management services provided by us use the Participatr web server

AI-enabled text analysis

  • Participatr Limited can not guarantee the accuracy of AI-enabled summaries generated by the digital platform, though we will strive to continuously improve the accuracy of the summarises generated as far as possible

Procurement and invoicing

  • In all instances, we are willing to complete a new supplier form/questionnaire and/or complete and sign a contract/service agreement between you and us (if required for procurement and/or legal purposes), and this activity is included within the scope of this agreement
  • In all instances, we are willing to respond directly to and provide specific information in relation to queries or questions relevant to procurement, IT or data security, or contractual matters, in order for you to substantially complete relevant documentation and/or procedures, and this activity is included within the scope of this agreement
  • Additional professional time taken to substantially complete (or coordinate the completion of) IT or data security questionnaires, contracts or agreements between you and a third-party, registration through a third-party procurement system, IT security testing or providing documented evidence of IT or data security measures will be incurred at the hourly rate
  • Any third-party costs required to carry out IT security testing, such as penetration or vulnerability testing, in response to a specific request, will be chargeable to you at cost (as well as any additional professional time incurred to coordinate and commission the testing)
  • We will invoice for the full fixed-term subscription amount, agreed additional services and/or administrative costs detailed in the agreement on the date of the public launch of the platform or 3 calendar months from the date of the agreement, whichever comes sooner
  • We will invoice for the full fixed-term subscription extension amount on the first day that the subscription extension takes effect
  • If any details required to invoice correctly for the scope of services detailed in the agreement, such as a purchase order reference or correct invoicing address, are not supplied when the agreement is completed and signed, additional professional time required to seek the required information will be incurred at the hourly rate
  • VAT is added to all invoice amounts at the prevailing rate
  • Payment of all invoices is required within 30 days - if payment is not received within 30 days of the invoice date, we reserve the right to temporarily revoke public and client access to the platform until full payment is received
  • Payment for all invoices is required by electronic transfer - we do not accept payment by cheque, postal order or cash deposit
  • We reserve the right to charge statutory interest on overdue invoices, charged at 8% of the value of the invoice plus the Bank of England base rate

Work in practice

  • Participatr Limited’s core working hours are 8.00am to 4.00pm, Monday to Friday, excluding bank and public holidays, and no requests will be actioned outside of these working hours unless agreed otherwise
  • It is your responsibility to ensure that relevant documents relating to the web page content to be included on the platform, such as written content, images, video content, interactive map GIS boundary data or survey questions, are proactively provided to us by you or an appointed third-party in an appropriate format
  • Where images are not supplied in a recognised web-ready format (PNG, JPG, TIFF and/or PDF file extensions) and/or requires digital manipulation using image editing software, additional professional time required for conversion or image manipulation will be incurred at the hourly rate
  • Where GIS data (SHP, KMZ, KML file extensions) is not provided with the correct boundary, line or shape waypoints, and require manual correction using GIS software, additional professional time required for correction will be charged at our hourly rate
  • We do not provide video editing services - all videos supplied should be in a recognised format (MP4, M4V, AVI, MPEG) and correctly edited for publishing on a web page
  • Relevant documents and any relevant instructions relating to the web page content must be supplied at least 3 working days (Monday to Friday) prior to the public launch or prior to the date where this content is required to be publicly accessible - whilst we may be practically able and/or willing to curate and upload web page content in a shorter time period, this is not guaranteed and failure to provide documents and instruction at least three working days (72 working hours) prior to public launch is likely to result in delay
  • Where we are directed by you or an appointed third-party to actively seek or request relevant documents relating to the web page content from third-parties, additional professional time required to do so will be incurred at the hourly rate
  • Where the platform pages are required to be embedded on a website not hosted by us, we will provide a hyperlink and ‘iframe’ HTML code required to embed the page(s)
  • Where you have already registered a domain name for association with the digital platform, we will provide Domain Name System (DNS) records necessary to associate the domain name with the Participatr web server, within the scope of the fixed-term subscription
  • Where additional technical advice on embedding the platform on third-party websites or associating an existing domain name with the platform is requested by you or an organisation contracted by you, additional professional time required to do so will be incurred at the hourly rate

At the end of the subscription, or when the subscription is paused

  • Once an agreement ends, the platform dashboard and webmail interface will no longer be accessible by you or your appointed third-parties and the platform front-end will remain publicly accessible for 3 months after the agreement end or subscription pause date
  • Platform data, including content, imagery, stakeholder data, emails and feedback collected through the platform, will be retained for 3 months after the end of the agreement and deleted in full from our web server at the end of this 3 month period if the subscription is not extended before the end of this period
  • Platform data will be deleted from Participatr Limited’s cloud storage system (used for data backup purposes) within 24 hours of the end of the 3 month period following the end date of the agreement (i.e. 3 calendar months and 1 day after the subscription end date)
  • Any email addresses set-up and associated with the platform will no longer be accessible and send/receive emails - all emails will be deleted and it is your responsibility to save any emails before the end of the subscription period