Terms and conditions for domain names

These terms and conditions together with the documents referred to within it shall form the agreement ("Agreement") between Suffolk County Council, and, the individual or directorates applying for the provision of services by Suffolk County Council ("Customer"). Suffolk County Council reserves the right to change these terms and conditions ("Conditions") at any time to comply with changes in regulatory requirements or by reason of changes in the terms of business or working practices of our suppliers or developments in technology upon giving Customer not less than fourteen (14) days’ notice in advance by post, email and/or publishing the alterations on the SCC website at www.suffolk.gov.uk/about/terms-and-conditions-for-domain-names. Notice will be sent to the contact details held by SCC.

For all UK domain name registrations (co.uk, .uk, org.uk, me.uk) you are entering into an agreement with Nominet UK, who administer the .uk namespace. Their terms and conditions can be found at www.nominet.uk/resources/policy/policies-rules.

For all other domain name registrations (uk, com, london, scot, net, uk.com, org, info, biz, tel, mobi) you are entering into an agreement with a third party (e.g. SCC, a registrar accredited by ICANN (Internet Cooperation for Assigned Names and Numbers) to directly register global domain names.

a. The Initial Term and any subsequent Renewal Term of the Agreement shall begin on the date that SCC generates an Order Confirmation e-mail message to Customer announcing the activation or continuation of the Customer's Service (the "Commencement Date") and shall continue for the period stated in the Order.

b. At least sixty (60) days prior to the expiry of a Service, SCC will remind the Customer of the impending expiry by email to the then current address specified on the Customer default account. SCC will further remind the Customer at thirty (30) days, fourteen (14) days and seven (7) days of the impending Service expiry. The Service will lapse unless payment is received to extend the term of the Service . SCC will not be liable for non-renewal of the Service.

c. Upon expiration of the Initial Term, this Agreement shall automatically renew for successive terms of the same length as the Initial Term ("Renewal Term") unless SCC or Customer provides the other with written notice of non-renewal at least fourteen (14) days prior to the expiration of the Initial Term.

d. The Agreement (and any subscription for Services) may be terminated early by the Customer or SCC.

e. The customer acknowledges and agrees that your right and interest in a domain name ceases upon its expiration and that any expired domain name may be made available for registration by a third party.

a. Customer queries can be made to ithelpdesk@suffolk.gov.uk

b. Acknowledgements of queries should be received within 24 hours.

c. Resolution should be completed with 3 working days, then escalated to Nominet.

a. The Initial Term and any subsequent Renewal Term of the Agreement shall begin on the date that SCC generates an Order Confirmation e-mail message to Customer announcing the activation or continuation of the Customer's Service (the "Commencement Date") and shall continue for the period stated in the Order.

b. At least sixty (60) days prior to the expiry of a Service, SCC will remind the Customer of the impending expiry by email to the then current address specified on the Customer default account. SCC will further remind the Customer at thirty (30) days, fourteen (14) days and seven (7) days of the impending Service expiry. The Service will lapse unless payment is received to extend the term of the Service . SCC will not be liable for non-renewal of the Service.

c. Upon expiration of the Initial Term, this Agreement shall automatically renew for successive terms of the same length as the Initial Term ("Renewal Term") unless SCC or Customer provides the other with written notice of non-renewal at least fourteen (14) days prior to the expiration of the Initial Term.

d. The Agreement (and any subscription for Services) may be terminated early by the Customer or SCC.

e. The customer acknowledges and agrees that your right and interest in a domain name ceases upon its expiration and that any expired domain name may be made available for registration by a third party. 

a. All Fees quoted are subject to UK VAT at the rate of 20% unless otherwise stated.

b. The Customer agrees to make payment for the Services via cost centre code at the time of making the order or renewal.

c. Fees are payable as specified in the specific Conditions relating to the Service in question and are due on an ongoing basis until this Agreement is terminated.

d. The Customer acknowledges that the provision of the Services is conditional on SCC receiving payment of the Fees in full. In the event of non-payment of Fees or suspected fraudulent activity in relation to payment of Fees by the Customer, SCC will:

i. Suspend the Service until payment is made in full, and/or

ii. Suspend administration of the Service and/or account

iii. Terminate the Agreement in whole or in part and cease providing the Service

e. Non-delivery or non-performance of services by any third party other than SCC's sub-contractors shall not give Customer any right to delay any payment to SCC or to make any claim whatsoever against SCC.

f. All prices may be increased subject to the Retail Prices Index (RPI) as listed on the office of national statistics and/or increases in the wholesale price of domain names as defined by the individual domain registries.

a. The Customer acknowledges that the Customer has ultimate responsibility for renewing the domain name and the Customer accepts that whether or not SCC has successfully contacted the Customer pursuant to this clause SCC cannot be held liable if the Customer fails to renew the domain name before its expiry.

b. The renewal of any domain name through SCC is subject to the Conditions.

c. When renewing Global Domains SCC reserves the right in its sole discretion to change the registrar through which the domain is registered and in requesting the renewal of a domain name the Customer authorises SCC to make such a change.

d. SCC does not warrant or guarantee that the domain name requested by the Customer will be renewed or be capable of renewal and the Customer should take no action in respect of the requested domain name until the Customer has been notified that the requested domain name has been registered.

e. Any domain name not renewed by its expiry date will be de-activated on the expiry date. To avoid loss of service, the Customer should ensure that domains are renewed well in advance of the expiry date. Uninterrupted service cannot be guaranteed.

Termination and suspension

In the event that the Customer uses SCC’s Services for any purpose deemed irresponsible or otherwise inappropriate, SCC reserves the right to suspend the Services during investigation of the Customer's usage in consultation with the Customer. Should investigation determine that the Services have been used irresponsibly or otherwise inappropriately, SCC reserves the right to terminate the Customer's domain name with immediate effect? Wherever possible, the Customer will be notified in advance of any termination.

1. Agreement can be terminated by SCC upon notice in writing to Customer having immediate effect if:

a) Customer is in breach of any of its obligations under this Agreement, including the AUP and/or Customer has had a Service suspended 3 times within a 6 month period;
b) if the Customer fails to pay to SCC any sum due under the Agreement on the due date for payment;
c) the supply of the service and/or additional services to the Customer may (in SCC's reasonable opinion) expose us to the risk of litigation or other civil or criminal proceedings;

2. The Agreement can be terminated by the Customer:

a) at the renewal date by not renewing the Service;
b) with immediate effect on giving us written notice of termination, if we are in material breach of any obligation under the Agreement and, where we can remedy that breach, have failed to do so within thirty (30) days of receiving notice from you specifying the breach and requiring its remedy; and/or

3. The Customer acknowledges that, termination of the Agreement for any reason will result in SCC ceasing to provide the applicable Services, with all the consequences that flow from such cessation, including (but not limited to), deletion of data e.g. hosting account(s) and mailboxes.

4. In the event of termination of the Agreement by the Customer part way through the Initial Period, the Customer remains obliged to pay for Services for the remainder of that period.

5. SCC may at its sole discretion suspend the provision of the whole or any part of the Services (temporarily or permanently) without notice or liability if:

a) the Customer fails to pay any Fees or any other sums owing to SCC by the Customer when they fall due;
b) if an event occurs and SCC determines in its sole discretion that suspension is necessary to protect all and any internet solutions provided by SCC from time to time;
c) Failure or deficiencies in the Customer System referring but not limited to hardware, server corruption and security breaches;
d) Failure by the Customer to adhere to any of the provisions outlined in the AUP.

In entering into a Contract with SCC for Domain Name Services, the Customer acknowledges that performance of the Contract will begin immediately and that it is hereby forfeiting its right to cancel the Contract under the Regulations.

1. SCC makes no warranties or representations that any Service will be uninterrupted or error-free. Customer accepts all Services provided hereunder "as is" and "as available" without warranty of any kind.

2. All implied conditions, warranties and terms (whether express or implied by statute, common law, custom or otherwise) - excluding those relating to the exercise of reasonable care and skill, fitness for purpose and satisfactory quality (where applicable) - are hereby excluded in relation to each of the Services to be provided hereunder to the fullest extent permitted by law.

3. SCC warrants that it will provide the Services with reasonable care and skill. SCC will not be liable for a breach of such warranty unless the Customer notifies SCC in writing of such failure within (14) days of the Customer becoming aware of the failure.

4. SCC shall not be liable for any services or products to be supplied by any third party.

5. SCC shall not be liable for any loss or damage of whatsoever nature suffered by Customer arising out of or in connection with any breach of this Agreement by Customer or any act, misrepresentation, error or omission made by or on behalf of Customer.

6. SCC disclaims all liabilities in connection with the following:

1. Loss of material uploaded;
2. Incompatibility of the site with any of the Customer's equipment, software or telecommunications links;
3. Technical problems including errors or interruptions of the site;
4. Unsuitability, unreliability or inaccuracy of the site;
5. Loss of any emails sent to mailboxes of any configuration or sent from email accounts related to Services provided by SCC.

7. SCC is not responsible for any delay, malfunction, non-performance and/or other degradation of performance of any of the Services caused by or resulting from any alteration, modification and/or amendments due to changes and specifications requested or implemented by the Customer whether or not beyond those already supplied.

The Customer shall address any complaints concerning the provision of the Services to SCC in writing, by post, fax or email.

We will respond to your complaints first by acknowledging it, and any steps we intend to carry out in resolving it.

Any complaints will be dealt with by our Customer Service Team and any escalation will be dealt with by the Management team.

If you are unhappy with the level of our service, please contact us and let us know. It is mainly through your feedback that we are able to review and keep improving the overall service we provide. We will do our best to resolve any complaint that you have as quickly as possible, once it has been investigated.

If you are unhappy with our service please contact us within 5 days of the incident that gave rise to the downtime, by logging an enquiry to the Customer Care Team ithelpdesk@suffolk.gov.uk or telephone 01473 265555.

To avoid any delay, please do not send correspondence to individual employees' email addresses. We will deal with your complaints or queries as quickly as possible.

We will aim to acknowledge your enquiry within 3 business days and respond within 10 working days of receipt of your enquiry.

Any complaints deemed not resolved satisfactorily by SCC can be escalated to Nominet directly. Formal complaints about a registrar can be made to Nominet (the .uk registry) here: www.nominet.uk/resources/complaints.

If you encounter something you think might constitute abuse (for example, spam or inappropriate content) which you believe has come from our network or systems, please read through the information on this page carefully. It explains how you can report it.

What is abuse?

This policy covers the following types of abuse on the internet:

• Spam
• Hacking attempts
• IRC activity
• Phishing
• Web space abuse

We work to minimise the amount of abuse that is generated on our servers. You can help us by reporting any abuse you spot which you believe has come from the SCC network.

Please report all abuse by emailing us at abuse@suffolk.gov.uk. Please include as much information as you can about the type of abuse you've encountered. Please also provide log files (if applicable), URLs for site abuse and email headers for spamming.

Once we've received your email, we'll investigate the issue thoroughly, contact any relevant customers and work to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Reporting port scanning, attempted hacking and firewall activity

If your report is based on information from a firewall, please ensure that you send the relevant unedited firewall log (or excerpt). Please ensure that the log includes the time, date and time zone.

If you see any other misuse on your own servers originating from a SCC IP address, please send us the following information:

• your URL
• your web server log

Please ensure the log shows the IP address, time, date and time zone of the IP Address logging into your server, and any details of the misuse that has taken place.

Reporting email / newsgroup misuse (including spam)

Please make sure you send us (abuse@suffolk.gov.uk) the full header and content of the relevant email(s) or message(s). The header enables us to trace the journey that a message has made from the computer it originated from to the computer it was downloaded to.

Reporting virus activity

If you have received or been infected by a virus, worm or Trojan please note that we are cannot offer any support to help rectify your systems. We recommend you install anti-virus software and ensure that it is updated regularly.

When reporting virus activity, please include the following information:

• The header of the email (if one is available)
• The content of the email
• The email attachment you received (if any)

You may need to include the attachment in an archived file (.zip, .rar etc.) for our email software to receive it. If you cannot attach the virus, then please send the email and header only.

Reporting web space abuse

If you become aware of any web space hosted by SCC that you feel is in contravention of any of our terms and conditions, then please email us with the details.

Please send the following information:

• The URL (such as www.suffolk.gov.uk).
• The time and date that you noticed the infringement.
• Details of how you came to view the material.
• A precise description of why you believe the material to be in breach. In line with industry practices, we report illegal activity to the police or to any other relevant authorities. We also work with all appropriate bodies to ensure images of child abuse are removed from our servers and reported as quickly as possible.

Please note: by signing up for our services you agree to be bound by all SCC terms and conditions.

If SCC is prevented or delayed in or from performing any of its obligations under these Conditions or the Agreement due to circumstances beyond its control such as but not limited to governmental acts, war, riots, strikes or trade disputes (including by and with our own employees), technical failure, general availability of the Internet, power failure, communications failure, weather, flood, fire or explosion, natural or local emergency SCC shall not be liable for this.