Terms and conditions

This page, and any pages it links to, explains the IPA Benchmarking data service’s terms and conditions. You must agree to these to use this service.

Who we are

The Benchmarking data service is managed by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA). IPA works with the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury and will be referred to as ‘we’ from now on.

Using the IPA Benchmarking data service

You agree to use the IPA Benchmarking data service (BDS) for lawful purposes only. You must also use it in a way that does not infringe the rights of, or restrict or inhibit the use and enjoyment of, this site by anyone else. This service should be used for benchmarking purposes only.

New project data is continually being added to the BDS. We can change or remove data at any time without notice.

Services and transactions

You can use the BDS as a data consumer to find and compare project data for benchmarking, or submit your own project data to the service.

Linking to the IPA Benchmarking data service

We welcome and encourage other websites to link to the IPA benchmarking data service.

You must contact us for permission if you want to either:

charge your website’s users to access and download any data from the DBS.
say your website is associated with or endorsed by the IPA or another government department or agency.

Linking from the IPA Benchmarking data service

The BDS links to some websites that are managed by other government departments and agencies, service providers or other organisations. We do not have any control over the content on these websites.

We’re not responsible for:

the protection of any personal data and information you give to these websites
any loss or damage that may come from your use of these websites, or any other websites they link to

You agree to release us from any claims or disputes that may come from using these websites.

You should read all terms and conditions, privacy policies and end user licences that relate to these websites before you use them.

Using the IPA Benchmarking data service

Most content on the BDS is subject to Crown copyright protection and is published under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

Some content is exempt from the OGL - check the list of exemptions.

Departmental logos and crests are also exempt from the OGL, except when they form an integral part of a document or dataset. If any content is not subject to Crown copyright protection or published under the OGL, we’ll usually credit the author or copyright holder.

You can reproduce content published on BDS under the OGL as long as you follow the licence’s conditions.

Acceptable Use

This policy sets out what is considered as ‘acceptable use’ by all users of this service in conjunction with the Civil Service Code and government departments’ IT user policies.

Scope

This policy applies to all users of this service.

Policy

The information displayed by this service has been classified as OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE and your adherence to this policy is required to protect the need to know.
You are responsible for exercising good judgment regarding appropriate use of this service in accordance with Civil Service / your organisation's policies, standards, and guidelines. Civil Service resources may not be used for any unlawful or prohibited purpose. As a user you are personally responsible for acting within the Data Protection Act 2018, the Official Secrets Act 1989 and protecting commercial confidentialities (including those of HMG).
Access to this service is solely for the purposes of carrying out your official duties. Use of the data for any other reason is a violation of this policy and the Civil Service Code.
For security, compliance, and maintenance purposes, authorised personnel may monitor and audit your use of this service and the associated systems and network traffic.
You are responsible for the security of data, accounts, and systems under your control. You must keep the email messages containing access links to this Service, and any associated authentication codes, secure and not share these with anyone, including other staff members, family, or friends. Providing access to another individual, either deliberately or through failure to secure authentication credentials, is a violation of this policy.
Do not attempt to log into the service as another user.
You must only access this service from a device that is managed by your department or organisation, which may include desktop, laptop, and smartphone and tablet devices, so as to avoid compromising authentication credentials or the information viewed. Devices must be managed in accordance with The Minimum Cyber Security Standard.
Where possible, mobile phones used to receive authentication codes should be managed by your department or organisation.
When accessing the Service, you must only do this from networks that you trust, such as your organisation’s office network, your home Wi-Fi network, GovWi-Fi or your mobile provider’s data service (i.e. 4G, 5G etc.). Do not use untrusted public Wi-Fi hotspots such as those found in coffee shops, airports and hotels as these may compromise your communications.
You must remain vigilant for 'shoulder-surfing' at all times and it is recommended that you employ screen privacy filters when accessing the service in the vicinity of members of the public.
Always lock your device’s screen before leaving it unattended for any period of time. Close your internet browser when you have finished using the service.
You are required to inform your organisation’s Cyber Security team and the Service administrator immediately if you suspect that the security of your device, your mobile phone, your emails or the service access links have been compromised.
You are required to inform the service administrator immediately if you leave or change your role and no longer require access to this Service.
This service is intended for use by authorised users from specified government departments and selected partner organisations only. Prior permission must be sought from the service administrator and relevant source department contacts before disclosing service information with any other parties.

This section describes prohibited uses of the DBS at https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/infrastructure-and-projects-authority (the “IPA Benchmarking data service”). The examples described here are not exhaustive.

The BDS is an OFFICIAL service provided to enable Users to engage with the IPA. Provision of access to the Service is subject to business need.

No Illegal, Harmful, or Offensive Use or Content

You may not use, or encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to use the Service for any illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive use, or to transmit, store, display, distribute or otherwise make available content that is illegal, harmful, fraudulent, infringing or offensive. Prohibited activities or content include:

Illegal, Harmful or Fraudulent Activities. Any activities that are illegal, that violate the rights of others, or that may be harmful to others, our operations or reputation, including disseminating, promoting or facilitating child pornography, offering or disseminating fraudulent goods, services, schemes, or promotions, make-money-fast schemes, ponzi and pyramid schemes, phishing, or pharming.
Infringing Content. Content that infringes or misappropriates the intellectual property or proprietary rights of others.
Offensive Content. Content that is defamatory, obscene, abusive, invasive of privacy, or otherwise objectionable, including content that constitutes child pornography, relates to bestiality, or depicts non-consensual sex acts.
Harmful Content. Content or other computer technology that may damage, interfere with, surreptitiously intercept, or expropriate any system, program, or data, including viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, or cancelbots.

No Security Violations

You may not use the Service to violate the security or integrity of any network, computer or communications system, software application, or network or computing device (each, a “System”). Prohibited activities include:

Unauthorized Access. Sharing information, accessing or using any System without permission, including attempting to probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of a System or to breach any security or authentication measures used by a System.
Interception. Monitoring of data or traffic, other than for approved business use, on the service without permission.
Falsification of Origin. Forging TCP - IP packet headers, email headers, or any part of a message describing its origin or route. The legitimate use of aliases and anonymous remailers is not prohibited by this provision.

No Network Abuse

You may not make network connections to any users, hosts, or networks unless you have permission to communicate with them. Prohibited activities include:

Monitoring or Crawling. Monitoring or crawling of a System that impairs or disrupts the System being monitored or crawled.
Denial of Service (DoS). Inundating a target with communications requests so the target either cannot respond to legitimate traffic or responds so slowly that it becomes ineffective.
Intentional Interference. Interfering with the proper functioning of any System, including any deliberate attempt to overload a system by mail bombing, news bombing, broadcast attacks, or flooding techniques.
Operation of Certain Network Services. Operating network services like open proxies, open mail relays, or open recursive domain name servers.
Avoiding System Restrictions. Using manual or electronic means to avoid any use limitations placed on a System, such as access and storage restrictions

Our Monitoring and Enforcement

We reserve the right, but do not assume the obligation, to investigate any violation of this Policy or misuse of the Services. We may:

investigate violations of this Policy or misuse of the Services; or
remove, disable access to, or modify any content or resource that violates this Policy or any other agreement we have with you for use of the Services.

We may report any activity that we suspect violates any law or regulation to appropriate law enforcement officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties.

Our reporting may include disclosing appropriate user information. We also may cooperate with appropriate law enforcement agencies, regulators, or other appropriate third parties to help with the investigation and prosecution of illegal conduct by providing network and systems information related to alleged violations of this Policy.

Reporting of Violations of this Policy

If you become aware of any violation of this Policy, you will immediately notify us and provide us with assistance, as requested, to stop or remedy the violation. To report any violation of this Policy or personal data, please follow our abuse reporting procedure.

Service Consumer Responsibility

By consuming the service you agree to take all necessary precautions to assure the integrity of any data accessed, including protection against malware and malicious code. It is your responsibility to investigate and resolve any issues arising from errors or warnings returned arising from data being consumed from the BDS when you download published material.

By consuming the service you are consenting to IPA recording details of any service access requests or downloads and the associated metadata with any connectivity.

Disclaimer

While we make every effort to keep this service up to date, we do not provide any guarantees, conditions or warranties that the information will be:

Current
Secure
Accurate
Complete
Free from bugs or viruses

We do not publish advice on this service. You should get professional or specialist advice before doing anything on the basis of the content.

We’re not liable for any loss or damage that may come from using the BDS. This includes:

any direct, indirect or consequential losses
any loss or damage caused by civil wrongs (‘tort’, including negligence), breach of contract or otherwise
the use of IPA Benchmarking data service and any third-party that are linked to or from it
the inability to use the IPA Benchmarking data service and any websites that are linked to or from it
This applies if the loss or damage was foreseeable, arose in the normal course of things or
you advised us that it might happen.

This includes (but is not limited to) the loss of your:

income or revenue
salary, benefits or other payments
business
profits or contracts
opportunity
anticipated savings
data
goodwill or reputation
tangible property
intangible property, including loss, corruption or damage to data or any computer system
wasted management or office time

We may still be liable for:

death or personal injury arising from our negligence
fraudulent misrepresentation
any other liability which cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law

Requests to remove content

You can ask for content to be removed from the IPA BDS database. We’ll remove content:

in order to comply with data protection legislation covering the rights and freedoms of individuals
if it breaches copyright laws, contains sensitive personal data or material that may be considered obscene or defamatory

Contact us to ask for content to be removed. You’ll need to send us the web address (URL) of the content and explain why you think it should be removed. We’ll reply to let you know whether we’ll remove it.

We remove content at our discretion in discussion with the department or agency responsible for it. You can still request information under the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act.

Information about you and your visits to the BDS

We collect information about you in accordance with our privacy notice and our cookie policies for the IPA Benchmarking data service. By using the BDS, you agree to us collecting this information and confirm that any data you provide is accurate.

Virus protection

We make every effort to check and test the BDS for viruses at every stage of production. You must make sure that the way you use the BDS does not expose you to the risk of viruses, malicious computer code or other forms of interference which can damage your computer system.

We’re not responsible for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or computer system that might happen when you use the BDS.

Viruses, hacking and other offences

When using the IPA Benchmarking data service, you must not introduce viruses, trojans, worms, logic bombs or any other material which is malicious or technologically harmful.

You must not try to gain unauthorised access to the BDS, the server on which it’s stored or any server, computer or database connected to it.

You must not attack the BDS in any way. This includes denial-of-service attacks.

We’ll report any attacks or attempts to gain unauthorised access to the BDS to the relevant law enforcement authorities and share information about you with them.

Governing law

These terms and conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

Any dispute you have which relates to these terms and conditions, or your use of the IPA Benchmarking data service (whether it be contractual or non-contractual), will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.

General

There may be legal notices elsewhere on the IPA Benchmarking data service that relate to how you use the site. We’re not liable if we fail to comply with these terms and conditions because of circumstances beyond our reasonable control. We might decide not to exercise or enforce any right available to us under these terms and conditions. We can always decide to exercise or enforce that right at a later date. Doing this once will not mean we automatically waive the right on any other occasion. If any of these terms and conditions are held to be invalid, unenforceable or illegal for any reason, the remaining terms and conditions will still apply.

Changes to these terms and conditions

Please check these terms and conditions regularly. We can update them at any time without notice.

You’ll agree to any changes if you continue to use the IPA Benchmarking data service after the terms and conditions have been updated.

Last updated December 2022.