Terms and Conditions

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The NICE websites ("the Websites") and all information contained in them are available for use subject to the following terms and conditions. By accessing the Websites, you agree to these terms and conditions of use.

Background

  1. The Websites are owned and operated by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (“NICE”) a Special Health Authority established by order of the Secretary of State for Health and based at 4-8 Maple Street, London W1T 5HD ("NICE", "us", "our" or "we").
  2. NICE operates three websites: the NICE website, NHS Evidence and NICE Pathways. These Terms and Conditions apply to the use these NICE websites. Where indicated, additional terms and conditions apply to specific websites only. These Terms and conditions do not apply to the NICE Docs Website.
  3. The NICE Website provides information about NICE's work, including its recommendations on the use of health technologies in the NHS, clinical guidelines on the management and treatment of particular conditions and its ongoing development of such recommendations and guidelines and other information.
  4. NICE Pathways provides an online tool for access to the range of guidance from NICE.
  5. The NHS Evidence website provides access to a comprehensive range of information sources (including local experience) and provides access to information that has traditionally been hard to find. This information is accessible through the Website and also available via IT systems used in clinical decision-making.
  6. Users must only use the site for purposes consistent with these Terms of Use including any conditions relating to specific websites outlined below.
  7. If you do not comply with these Terms of Use, we may block your access to the Websites..

General

  1. The information on the NICE Websites is there to inform those in the United Kingdom making decisions about the funding of care and to assist healthcare and social care practitioners and others to improve the quality of care and treatment. Information on which parts of the United Kingdom may be affected by NICE guidance may be found here: http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/whatwedo/niceandthenhs/nice_and_the_nhs.jsp

  2. The Websites are also accessible by the general public in the United Kingdom. Members of the general public may also find them of interest, and may use them to inform discussions with practitioners and those who take decisions about the funding of care.
  3. NICE’s functions do not extend beyond the United Kingdom. Neither the websites nor any part of their content is intended to be relied on outside the United Kingdom.
  4. Information retrieved from the Websites do not override the individual responsibility of healthcare and social care professionals involved in the delivery of care to make informed professional judgments appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with the individual and/or their guardian or carer.
  5. Practitioners, commissioners and managers are reminded of their duties to avoid unlawful discrimination and to have regard to promoting equality of opportunity. No material on the Websites should be interpreted in a way which would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.
  6. If you are an individual who chooses to access the information on the Websites, you should not rely on that information as professional medical advice or use it to replace any relationship with your doctor or other qualified healthcare or social care professional. For medical concerns, including decisions about medications and other treatments, individuals should always consult their doctor or, in serious cases, seek immediate assistance from emergency personnel. Individuals with any type of medical condition are specifically cautioned to seek professional medical advice before beginning any sort of health treatment. If you are a member of the public, you should evaluate the information on the Websites together with your physician or another qualified healthcare or social care professional.
  7. In relation to the NHS Evidence website only: It is in the nature of scientific debate that not all authors will agree on all matters. Further, published papers may be in error, or superseded by later research. Users should be aware that papers accessed through the Website on the same subject-matter may report different results or conclusions. It is the user's sole responsibility to assess all evidence and to reach a decision informed by it. The Website is designed only to assist access to some of the material relevant to decision-making. NHS Evidence only facilitates access to evidence published by third parties and no representation is made as to completeness, accuracy or fitness for purpose.
  8. Some sources of evidence have been accredited. Accreditation indicates that the source's systems have been appraised by the Institute against its accreditation criteria, and are considered to be sufficiently robust to merit the award of accreditation. Accreditation relates only to a source's procedures and not to the content of individual pieces of evidence it submits to the NHS Evidence database. Not all sources have been assessed against the accreditation criteria, so lack of accreditation does not mean that the criteria have not been met. For more about accreditation, please click here.

Your use of the website

  1. You may only use the Websites for lawful purposes. You may not use, and shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that no other person uses, the Websites in a way that does not comply with the terms of any laws applicable to you or that is in any way unlawful.

  2. You agree:
    1. to comply with any legal notices contained on the Websites;
    2. to respect and comply with the legal rights of others, in particular our rights (including our rights in copyright and trade marks), and the rights of our licensors;
    3. not to use the Websites for any commercial gain, personal or otherwise, nor to sell or trade in any of the content or other material copied or downloaded from the Website without our express written permission;
    4. not to change any of the text or images contained in the Websites or merge it with any other text or images, or forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any content; and
    5. not to present or use material from the Websites in a way that is misleading.

Intellectual property rights

  1. You acknowledge that all rights in copyright, patents, design rights, trade marks and other intellectual property rights (whether registered, capable of registration or otherwise) throughout the world, (“IP Rights”) in the Websites (including in all content) are owned by NICE and/or our licensors, other third parties or are subject to Crown copyright, for the full duration of such rights.

  2. Except for your use of the Websites in accordance with these Terms of Use, you are granted no IP Rights in respect of the Websites or their content.

  3. You may print copy or download the content from the Website for educational and not-for-profit purposes only and provided always that:
    20.1 NICE is acknowledged as the source;
    20.2 all titles credits and URLs are included; and
    20.3 you comply with any legal notice contained in the Website.
    This permission is revocable by NICE at any time.

  4. All trade marks, logos, titles, brand and product names (“the Trade Marks”) which are featured on the Website are owned by NICE, or our licensors.
  5. You may only use or refer to the Trade Marks which are included in those extracts from the Website downloaded, copied or printed by you in accordance with these Terms of Use. Otherwise you must not offer or distribute any products or services under or by reference to the Trade Marks, or otherwise reproduce any of the Trade Marks without our express written consent
  6. Reproduction, publication or distribution of the content from the Website including NICE copyright material for commercial purposes is not permitted without the express written permission of NICE.
  7. In respect of NHS Evidence only bodies accredited and licensed by NHS Evidence may use the NHS Evidence marque Mark ("the Marque"). Under no circumstances may the Marque be used by any other organisation or individual, save for reproduction of the Marque in accordance with paragraph 15.

Links

  1. The Website contains links to websites which are not under our control. These links are provided for your convenience only. We are not responsible for the availability or content of such other websites, nor for any products or services available from them. Any such link should not be seen as an endorsement by us of such websites, or any of the products or services contained on them. Links are made to or from the Website at your own risk.
  2. You should be aware that your use of such other websites may be subject to additional terms and conditions imposed by the owners of those websites. Your dealings with such third parties are between you and the third party, and we accept no liability as a result of you accessing such websites or entering into contractual arrangements with the operator in question.
  3. Users may insert a simple link to the Website from their own website provided that:
    1. the website on which the link appears contains no unlawful, obscene, or offensive content and does not contain any links to such content;
    2. the website on which the link appears is not likely to cause anxiety, loss, harm or personal injury to its readers; and
    3. the link in no way has a negative impact on the reputation of NICE.
  4. We reserve the right to terminate any links to the Website at any time without notice and at our sole and absolute discretion.

Shared learning: implementing NICE guidance

  1. There is a section of the NICE website that allows NHS and partner organisations to submit and retrieve good examples of implementing NICE recommendations through a database. NICE has carried out a minimal quality assurance process on each of the examples included in the database to ensure it meets basic criteria before accepting it into the database. However, inclusion of an example in the database does not constitute NICE endorsement of the approach, product or tool.
  2. The examples in the database do not constitute NICE guidance. NICE has not assessed the projects to confirm that they accurately reflect or implement NICE guidance. If you have queries or concerns about the relationship between NICE guidance and any examples given, please refer to the original NICE guidance, which is the only definitive statement of the guidance.

Privacy and data protection

  1. Any personal data held by NICE on users visiting the NICE website, including web-based guidance consultations, will be used for the purpose of NICE business. It may be passed to third parties associated with NICE work in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998 and data sharing guidance issued by the Information Commissioner’s Office. Anonymised consultation responses may be published on the NICE website or passed to third parties approved by NICE.
  2. Personal data used for maintaining our mailing lists for the distribution of our guidance, news updates or E-alerts may be passed to data processors or other third parties approved by NICE to enable us to maintain these services. If you wish to discontinue the E-alert service please contact NICE.
  3. Further information about how we may use your personal information and your rights to change or delete it can be found in theInformation Charter.

Cookies

  1. NICE uses ‘cookies’ in the administration of its website. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer when you visit a website such as those maintained by NICE. They are used to make our websites work as efficiently as possible and to provide information to NICE website administrators on how well the site is working.
  2. The following cookies are used on the NICE website:

    Name Data Purpose
    __utma Site use tracking info Google Analytics
    __utmb Site use tracking info Google Analytics
    __utmc Site use tracking info Google Analytics
    __utmz Site use tracking info Google Analytics
    [FORMTYPE] UID Save form for later functionality
    JSESSIONID UUID number Java session tracking
    CFID Number Coldfusion session tracking
    CFTOKEN Number Coldfusion session tracking
    AUTHENTICATION Hash CMS authentication
    CMSSITEID Number CMS site tracker

  3. This list is subject to change as NICE website services are developed and new functionality is included.
  4. For more information on how to use your internet browser delete and block cookies on your computer visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/. Please note that some cookies are essential for the provision of NICE services via its website. If you block these cookies parts of the NICE website may not operate effectively.

Availability of the Websites

  1. We will make reasonable endeavours to ensure that these Websites are generally available but make no representation or guarantees as to such availability.
  2. We reserve the right to withdraw access to all or any part of any of these Websites for periods of time in order to modify any of the content, for scheduled or unscheduled maintenance and for other purposes, without notice to you.
  3. As you will receive these Websites via third party telecommunications networks, you acknowledge that NICE cannot guarantee that the availability of these Websites will be uninterrupted or error free. Similarly we cannot guarantee that the transmission of any information over such telecommunications networks will be secure nor that you will be able to access these Websites at all times.
  4. These Websites are therefore provided to you on an “as is” and “as and when available” basis, and your use of these Websites is at your own risk.

Disclaimers

  1. We have processes in place to seek to ensure that the contents of these Websites are accurate and that the links it publishes directing the user to third party websites function properly. However, we give no assurances regarding the currency, accuracy or applicability of any of the Website's content.
  2. Due to the nature of these Websites we cannot guarantee the prompt editing or removal of any inappropriate or inaccurate information. If you find any information that is inaccurate or inappropriate then please contact us.
  3. While we use virus checkers to check the content of these Websites we are unable to guarantee that these Websites will never be faulty, nor that it will work continuously, nor that it will be maintained in a fully operational condition nor virus and/or error free. However we will use reasonable endeavours to correct serious faults reported by you as soon as we reasonably can.
  4. You should always check any content before downloading. Any Website content is downloaded by you at your own risk and on the basis that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that result from the download of such content.
  5. Without prejudice to any other limitations or exclusions of our liability in these Terms of Use we shall have no liability whatsoever in respect of any failure on our part to repair a fault in these Websites or to provide continuous access to it.
  6. Without prejudice to any other limitations or exclusions of our liability in these Terms of Use we shall have no liability whatsoever in respect of any inability on your part to obtain access to these Websites whether through any denial of service, attack or otherwise.
  7. You are responsible for the provision of and payment for all telecommunications services necessary to use these Websites and all hardware, equipment and other services (including but not limited to computers, modems and any other communication equipment) necessary to use these Websites.
  8. We provide these Websites to you without any conditions, warranties, or guarantees whether express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties or conditions as to the satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose, which are expressly excluded to the extent permitted by law.

Disclaimer in respect of the use of NICE guidance

  1. The use of NICE guidance is subject to any disclaimer included within the guidance and the following disclaimer which applies to any recipient of NICE guidance whether they be a clinical professional or member of the public:
    1. This guidance represents the view of NICE, which was arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. Healthcare professionals are expected to take it fully into account when exercising their clinical judgement. However, the guidance does not override the individual responsibility of healthcare professionals to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual patient, in consultation with the patient and/or guardian or carer.
    2. Implementation of this guidance is the responsibility of local commissioners and/or providers. Commissioners and providers are reminded that it is their responsibility to implement the guidance, in their local context, in light of their duties to avoid unlawful discrimination and to have regard to promoting equality of opportunity. Nothing in this guidance should be interpreted in a way which would be inconsistent with compliance with those duties.

Our liability

  1. Nothing in these Terms of Use shall or shall be deemed to limit our liability to you for any personal injury or death caused by our negligence or for any fraud perpetrated by us.
  2. Subject to the above paragraphs you acknowledge that in respect of your use and access of the Website we shall not be liable to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for:
    1. any damage or loss arising from the consequences of viruses received by you via the Website or of our failure to provide the Website in accordance with these Terms of Use;
    2. any economic losses (including loss of profits) any indirect or consequential losses, loss of data, goodwill or reputation, or for any wasted expense including but limited to losses caused by viruses,
      and any other liability we may have to you whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by you in relation to the Website (including any information contained on it) is limited to £500.
  3. In any event we will not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations under these Terms of Use if we are prevented from doing so by an event beyond our reasonable control.

Your liability

  1. You agree to indemnify and hold us harmless from any:
    1. claims (including third party claims);
    2. losses, demands, costs, expenses (including legal costs and expenses);
    3. fines; and/or
    4. any other liabilities whatsoever (including (without limitation)) any liability arising out of any action brought against us for misrepresentation or negligent misstatement
      arising from any access to or use of these Websites by you, or by any person who may be authorised by you or for whom you are responsible to the extent such use is in breach of these Terms of Use and/or unlawful, and save always to the extent that any such claims, losses, demands, costs, expenses, fines or other liabilities arise directly due to our negligence or default.
  2. You acknowledge that this indemnity is appropriate and reasonable given the nature of the Website, and that you are accessing these Websites at no additional charge to yourself.

Jurisdiction

  1. The laws of England shall apply exclusively to these Terms of Use and to all matters relating to use of the Website including but not limited to access to and use of NICE guidance. Any cause of action arising under these Terms of Use or the use of the Website including but not limited to access to and use of NICE guidance shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

Amending these terms of use

  1. From time to time NICE may at its sole discretion amend these Terms of Use. Your continuing use of these Websites constitutes your acceptance of and agreement to any changed terms and conditions. NICE will post details of any such changes on the Websites in a timely manner.

Enforceability

  1. If any provision of these Terms of Use is held to be invalid or unenforceable, such provision shall be struck out and the remaining provisions shall be enforced.

Interpretation

  1. Headings are for reference purposes only and in no way define, limit, construe or describe the scope or extent of such section.

No waiver

  1. Our failure to act with respect to a breach of these Terms of Use by you or others does not waive our right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

Entire Agreement

  1. These Terms of Use set forth the entire understanding and agreement between you and the NICE with respect to your use of these Websites and your relationship, from that use, with us.

Further information

  1. If you would like to make any comment or complaint about these Websites please email us.

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