Public Reading terms and conditions
Discussion rules
By registering with this forum you agree to abide by the discussion rules.
These include:
- Do not submit comments that contain personal information.
- Do not submit comments that are unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually orientated or racially offensive.
- Do not swear or use language that could offend other forum participants.
- Do not advertise or promote products or services.
- Do not spam or flood the forum. Only submit a comment once.
- Do not resubmit the same, or similar, comments.
- Keep your comments relevant to the discussion topic.
- Read complete set of online discussion rules
Registration
Contributing to this web forum requires registration. Certain information is mandatory - such as a name and a valid email address. The personal details which you provide on registration will not be disclosed to third parties other than in exceptional circumstances (eg: the prevention of a serious crime). Your registration data will also be retained for 18 months after the close of the forum.
Moderation
Comments will be pre-moderated before being posted on the discussion forum. Comments will be moderated at least every working day. Where possible we will aim to publish accepted posts within 24 hours.
If a comment contravenes any of the full discussion rules it will not appear on the forum and will be returned to the participant by e-mail, along with a reference to the rule(s) contravened. The participant will be invited to resubmit their comment, after making appropriate changes.
Your posts will remain live for 18 months after the close of the forum on the UK Parliament website and a transcript of selected comments and a summary report will be prepared by Committee staff for inclusion in the Committee's inquiry report.
Privacy policy
The Corporate Officers of the House of Commons and House of Lords are Data Controllers under the Data Protection Act 1998. Further, for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act and the Environmental Information Regulations the House of Commons and House of Lords are public authorities and therefore the information they hold will fall within the scope of this legislation.
Where you provide personal information to the Houses of Parliament, for example when you participate in a web forum hosted on this site, it will be used only for the services you requested and as specified on the relevant pages of the site. Contributions to web forums hosted on this site and information provided by the person posting the contribution will be retained for a period of up to 18 months following the closure of the particular discussion. Access to the personal data you provide will be securely controlled and all processing will be undertaken in accordance with, and as permitted by, the requirements of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA).
Links to other websites
The UK Parliament is not responsible for the content of external websites and links to external sites should not be taken as an endorsement of their content.
Freedom of Information
The information you provide will be subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations, which allow public access to information held by the House of Commons/House of Lords. This does not necessarily mean that information about you in addition to what is published on the forum will be made available to the public as there are exemptions relating to information provided in confidence and information which is protected by the Data Protection Act 1998 applies. However, you should be aware that this may occur.
Copyright
By making contributions to Parliament web forums you are assigning copyright to the House of Commons and the House of Lords. This is necessary because the contributions may be collated in evidence for Committee reports.