Terms and conditions

You agree to use this site only for lawful purposes, and in a manner that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of this site by any third party. Such restriction or inhibition includes, without limitation, conduct which is unlawful, or which may harass or cause distress or inconvenience to any person, and the transmission of obscene or offensive content or disruption of normal flow of dialogue within this site.

You are prohibited from posting or transmitting any unlawful, defamatory, obscene or offensive material or any material that constitutes or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offence, likely to give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violates any law. We will fully co-operate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing us to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials on this web site.

The names, images and logos identifying the Civil Legal Assistance Office, the Scottish Legal Aid Board and Scottish Legal Aid, are proprietary marks of the Scottish Legal Aid Board. Copying of our logos and/or any other third party logos accessed via this web site is not permitted without prior approval from the relevant copyright owner.

We retain copyright in all of our material placed on the site, and while it can be copied for use by an individual or within an organisation with a legal aid account number, permission must be sought for any other uses.

Parliamentary and Scottish Parliamentary legislation and regulations featured on this site are subject to Crown copyright protection unless otherwise indicated. The Crown copyright protected material (other than the Royal Arms and departmental or agency logos) may be reproduced free of charge in any format or medium provided it is reproduced accurately and not used in a misleading context. Where any of the Crown copyright items on this site are being republished or copied to others, the source of the material must be identified and the copyright status acknowledged.

The permission to reproduce Crown protected material does not extend to any material on this site which is identified as being the copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the copyright holders concerned.

You may re-use this information (not including logos) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ or e-mail: psi@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk.

Any enquiries regarding this document/publication should be sent to us at communications@slab.org.uk.

Requests for permission to use our logo or copyright material should be directed to the Communications office, email communications@slab.org.uk. Tell us how and why you wish to use our logo(s) and/or copyright material. Please include your contact details: name, address, telephone number, fax number and email.

You do not have to ask permission to link directly to pages hosted on this site. We do not object to you linking directly to the information that is hosted on our site. However, we do not permit our pages to be loaded into frames on your site. Our pages must load into the user’s entire window.

We are not responsible for the contents or reliability of the linked websites provided by both connected organisations and independent third parties and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. The existence of links to other websites on this website should not be taken as endorsement of any kind of the other websites in question. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages.

We make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production. However, we make no representation that the website is free from infection by viruses or anything else that has contaminating or destructive properties. It is always wise for you to run an anti-virus program on all material downloaded from the internet. We cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur whilst using material derived from this website.

Our website and material relating to Government information, products and services (or to third party information, products and services), is provided ‘as is’, without any representation or endorsement made and without warranty of any kind whether express or implied, including but not limited to the implied warranties of satisfactory quality, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, compatibility, security and accuracy.

We do not warrant that the functions contained in the material contained in this site will be uninterrupted or error free, that defects will be corrected, or that this site or the server that makes it available are free of viruses or represent the full functionality, accuracy, reliability of the materials.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including, without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damages whatsoever arising from use or loss of use of, data or profits arising out of or in connection with the use of our website.

These terms and conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Scotland. Any dispute arising under these terms and conditions shall be subject to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Scotland.

Our full privacy statement is available here.

If you are a user with general public access our website does not store or capture personal information, other than the user’s Internet Protocol (IP) address that is automatically recognised by the web server.

We use “cookies” to identify you when you visit our site and to enhance your experience of the site. Cookies are small files that your web browser places on your computer’s hard drive. We use cookies for remembering user names and preferences and to track users’ progress through the site, allowing us to make improvements based on usage data. It also allows us to be accountable for the investment we make in our website by showing how – and how often – it is used.

We do not use cookies to collect any other personal information about our users. By continuing to use our website, you agree to our use of cookies and consent to our retention of your IP address for the purposes stated above.

How can I change my cookie settings?

You can delete cookies from your hard drive at any time. Further information on how to delete cookies can be found on www.aboutcookies.org. You can set your Internet browser so that it will not allow cookies to be stored on your computer. [Further information on how to prevent cookies from being stored on your computer can also be found on www.aboutcookies.org under the “manage cookies” section. Alternatively go to the help menu within your Internet browser].

This privacy statement only covers our website at www.clao.org.uk. This statement does not cover links within this site to other websites.

The system will record your email address and other information if volunteered to us by you. This shall be treated as proprietary and confidential. It may be used for internal review and to notify you about updates to the SLAB website or to provide you with our online newsletter (when available) if you so request or to send you any other materials that may be requested by you.

Other than where stated information collected by us is used for internal review, to improve the content of this website, to customise the content and/or layout, to notify users about updates, and to contact users for marketing purposes and is not shared with other organisations for commercial purposes.

Please note that SLAB monitors employee communications, including all email sent or received. Some phone calls may also be recorded.

SLAB has general obligations under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, as regards the publication and disclosure of information. In any event SLAB is committed to openness and transparency. However, people entrust us with both sensitive personal information and details about cases. We cannot provide information where it is exempted from disclosure in terms of Section 34 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 and the Data Protection Act 1998. In addition we would look to withhold information where this is appropriate in terms of the exemptions under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.

Section 34 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986 provides that, subject to certain limited exceptions, we may not supply information provided to us under the Act (including, for example, information contained in legal aid applications) without the consent of the person who supplied that information. A Board member or employee who supplied information in breach of this section would be guilty of a summary criminal offence.

We welcome any comments on the structure or contents of its site. We shall use these comments to inform and assist us in the development of the site. In the unlikely event that you find any inaccurate information on our website or have any complaint about what we have published please email communications@slab.org.uk. We will investigate on receipt and take such action which we, in our sole discretion, determine as being appropriate having regard to all the circumstances.

While we may enter into correspondence with commentators, we undertake not to release e-mail addresses or names of any commentators to any third parties.

We may at any time revise these terms and conditions without notice. Please check regularly. Continued use of our websites after a change has been made is your acceptance of the change.