Standard Terms and Conditions for 'Talk To A Forecaster' service
Standard Terms and Conditions for 'Talk To A Forecaster' service
1. Introduction
This page tells you the terms and conditions on which we supply our 'Talk to a Forecaster' service to you. Please read these terms and conditions carefully before ordering this Service. You should understand that by ordering this Service, you indicate that you accept these terms and conditions and agree to be bound by them.
You should download or print a copy of these terms and conditions for future reference.
2. Definitions
In these terms and conditions, including the Introduction above, the terms below have the following meanings:
"Business Day" all days other than Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in England.
"Contract" the contract between us and you for the supply of the Service.
"Deliverables" the information we give to you when supplying the Service.
“Gambling” has the meaning given in s.3 of the Gambling Act 2005.
"Service" means the 'Talk to a Forecaster' service.
"Site" our website www.metoffice.gov.uk and all associated Met Office micro-sites linked to this website.
"us, our, we" the Met Office, whose address is Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, for and on behalf of the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
"you, your" the person who places an order to buy the Service.
3. Information about us
The Service is provided by the Met Office, whose address is Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB, for an on behalf of the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Our VAT number is GB 888 8053 62.
4. Service availability
Please note that the Service may not be accessed by individuals who are resident in, or requesting access to the Service from, countries which are subject to Foreign & Commonwealth Office sanctions and restrictions. An up to date list of the restricted countries can be found at the following link:
Sanctions and export controls by country (the "Restricted Countries").
We will not activate accounts or accept orders where individuals attempt to carry out the registration process or place orders from the Restricted Countries.
How the contract is formed between you and us
5.1 If you are placing an order for the Service by telephone, on placing your order, you will be asked if you have read these terms and conditions and your response will be recorded by us. If you have not read these terms and conditions at the time of placing your order, we will provide you with information on how to access them.
5.2 If you are placing an order for the Service by means other than by telephone, you will receive an e-mail from us acknowledging that we have received your order and providing details on how to access these terms and conditions.
5.3 Placing an order as described in paragraphs 5.1 and 5.2 will not create a legally binding contract between us. Your order constitutes an offer to us to buy the Service which we accept when we take payment for the Service from you.
5.4 We may choose not to accept your order for any reason and will not be liable to you or anyone else in those circumstances. In the event we do not accept your order, we will notify you and we will refund any charges you have already incurred in respect of that order as soon as possible.
5.5 From time to time it may be necessary to change the content of the Service. If we are not able to provide the Service you have ordered, we will contact you to offer the next nearest alternative. If you do not want the proposed alternative you may cancel your order without any liability to us.
6. Consumer rights
If you are contracting as a consumer, the following provisions will apply:
6.1 You may, at any time before we provide you with the Service OR within seven Business Days of us sending you an order confirmation, amend or cancel an order by providing us with written notice. However, you acknowledge and agree that if you agree to us beginning to provide the Service before the seven Business Days referred to in this paragraph have expired, your cancellation rights will end as soon as we start to provide the Service.
6.2 If you amend or cancel an order in this way, your liability to us shall be limited to the payment to us of all costs we reasonably incur in fulfilling the order until we receive your amendment or cancellation, except that where the amendment or cancellation results from our failure to comply with these terms and conditions you will have no liability to us.
6.3 As a consumer, you will benefit from any mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident. Nothing in these terms and conditions, including clause 21, affects your rights as a consumer to rely on such mandatory provisions of local law.
7. Warranties
7.1 We will use reasonable endeavours to provide the Service, and to provide you with the Deliverables in accordance in all material respects with the description of the Service and/or the Deliverables on our Site.
7.2 We warrant that we are authorised by the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office and any relevant third party to grant licences to make use of the Deliverables.
7.3 We aim to ensure that the content of the Deliverables is accurate and consistent with our current knowledge and practice. However, meteorology and climatology are inexact sciences which are constantly evolving and therefore any element of the Deliverables which involves a forecast or a prediction may not be relied upon as though it were a statement of fact.
7.4 We do not warrant that the Deliverables will be fit for your intended use and you should undertake your own evaluation exercise before choosing to rely upon the content of the Deliverables.
7.5 Other than the warranties expressly set out in these terms and conditions, the Met Office excludes all warranties or representations (express or implied) including any in respect of the accuracy, compatibility, performance or fitness for purpose of the Deliverables to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law.
8. Ownership of deliverables and grant of licence
8.1 To the extent that any intellectual property rights exist in the Deliverables, we retain ownership, on behalf of the British Crown and/or our licensor(s) (if applicable), of all such rights in the Deliverables and in any copies you may make. Your right to use the Service and/or Deliverables will not give you any ownership rights or other proprietary interest in any of the Deliverables.
If you are contracting as a consumer, the following provisions will apply:
8.2 We grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use, copy and adapt the Deliverables solely for your personal use, but the Deliverables may not be used for financial gain or for any commercial purposes. This means that you agree not to sell, supply, sub-license, distribute and/or otherwise make the Service and/or Deliverables available to third parties.
If you are contracting as a business, the following provisions will apply:
8.3 We grant you a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use copy and adapt the Deliverables solely for internal business use. This means that you, your officers, employees and/or contractors may only use the Deliverables solely in the course of your day to day internal business administration activities and the day to day running of your business and organisation. You must not sell, supply, sub-license, distribute and/or otherwise make the Service and/or Deliverables available to and/or with third parties, whether in their original form or incorporated into and/or adapted for your products and/or services of whatever description anywhere in the world.
Provisions which apply to both consumers and businesses
8.4 Except where you have been advised otherwise, written and recorded versions of the Deliverables are subject to Crown Copyright and any reproduction or publication of such Deliverables must contain a Crown Copyright acknowledgement in the following form:
where the reproduction will be wholly within the UK:"
© Crown copyright [followed by year], the Met Office"
OR
where the reproduction will occur outside the UK:
"© British Crown copyright [followed by year], the Met Office"
8.5 The words "Met Office" and the Met Office device and logos are registered trade marks in the United Kingdom, the European Union, the United States of America and other countries. These trade marks are the property of the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. You may not use any trade mark, service mark, logo, corporate or business name of the Met Office without our prior consent in writing.
8.6 You must not:
8.6.1 use the Deliverables, our logos or our trade marks to endorse or promote your products and/or services; or
8.6.2 use the Deliverables in a way which is likely to mislead others. For example, if you adapt, change, enhance or manipulate the Deliverables in any way you must not give the impression your output is endorsed or produced by the Met Office; or
8.6.3 use the Deliverables for the purposes of Gambling; or
8.6.4 do anything that may bring the name of the Met Office into disrepute or which damages or dilutes the goodwill associated with the name and trade marks of the Met Office.
9. Provision and security of PIN
9.1 When access to the Service is available via a personal identification number ("PIN") which we shall provide to you, you are responsible for keeping this PIN secure and should not disclose it to anyone who is not authorised by you to incur charges on your behalf. We shall not be liable for any losses incurred by you as a result of your failure to keep your PIN secure.
9.2 You must not sell or otherwise make your PIN available to any third party in return for the receipt of revenue, credit or other benefit.
9.3 When you purchase the Service as a one-off and not as part of a package of calls, access to the Service will be provided over the phone immediately after payment is taken, and a PIN will not be provided.
10. Price and payment
10.1 The price of the Service will be as quoted on our Site from time to time, except in cases of obvious error. These prices include VAT.
10.2 Prices are liable to change at any time, but changes will not affect orders in respect of which we have already sent you an order confirmation.
10.3 Our Site contains a large number of services and it is always possible that, despite our best efforts, this Service may be incorrectly priced. We will normally verify prices as part of the order confirmation process, where the Service's correct price is less than our stated price; we will charge the lower amount when dispatching the Service to you. If the Service's correct price is higher than the price stated on our Site, we will normally, at our discretion, either contact you for instructions before supplying you with the Service, or reject your order and notify you of such rejection.
10.4 We are under no obligation to provide the Service to you at the incorrect (lower) price if the pricing error is obvious and unmistakable and could have reasonably been recognised by you as a mis-pricing.
10.5 Payment for the Service must be by credit or debit card. We cannot accept payment with American Express but we accept payment with most other debit and credit cards. Payment will be debited from your account once we have processed your order. If the Service is not delivered for any reason, any sum debited by us from your account will be credited back to your account, in full, as soon as possible.
If you are contracting as a business and we agree to invoice you for payment for the Service, the following additional provisions will apply:
10.6 You will pay each invoice submitted by us, in full and in cleared funds, within 30 days of the date of the invoice.
10.7 Without prejudice to any other right or remedy that we may have, if you fail to pay us on the due date, we may:
10.7.1 claim interest under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998; and
10.7.2 suspend the Service until payment has been made in full.
10.8 Time for payment will be of the essence of the Contract.
10.9 All sums payable to us under the Contract will become due immediately on its termination, despite any other provision. This clause 10.9 is without prejudice to any right to claim for interest under the law, or any such right under the Contract.
10.10 You shall bear the exchange rate risk in respect of any payment charges agreed in writing to be received by us in foreign currencies.
10.11 We may, without prejudice to any other rights we may have, set off any liability of you to us against any liability of us to you.
11 Liability
11.1 Subject to clauses 9.1 and 11.4, if either you or we fail to comply with these terms and conditions, neither you nor we shall be responsible for any losses that the other suffers as a result, except for those losses which are a foreseeable consequence of the failure to comply with these terms and conditions.
11.2 Neither you nor we shall be responsible for losses that result from your or our failure to comply with these terms and conditions including, but not limited to, losses that fall into the following categories:
11.2.1 loss of income or revenue;
11.2.2 loss of business;
11.2.3 loss of anticipated savings;
11.2.4 loss of data;
11.2.5 loss of or damage to reputation or goodwill; or
11.2.6 any waste of time.
11.3 Subject to clause 11.4, the total liability arising under or in connection with the Contract for both you and for us shall be limited to the greater of £1,000 OR the price paid for the Service.
11.4 This clause does not include or limit in any way your or our liability for:
11.4.1 death or personal injury caused by negligence; or
11.4.2 fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or
11.4.3 any breach of the obligations implied by section 2 of the Supply of Goods and Services Act 1982; or
11.4.4 any other matter for which it would be illegal or unlawful for you or for us to exclude or attempt to exclude liability.
12. Written communications
Applicable laws require that some of the information or communications we send to you should be in writing. When receiving the Service, you accept that communication with us will be mainly by telephone or electronically. We will provide information relating to the Service by posting notices on our Site. For contractual purposes, you agree to this telephonic and electronic means of communication and you acknowledge that all contracts, notices, information and other communications that we provide to you in this manner comply with any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. This condition does not affect your statutory rights.
13. Termination
13.1 The Contract may be terminated by you with immediate effect by giving written notice to us if we commit:
13.1.1 a significant breach of the Contract and the breach cannot be put right; or
13.1.2 a significant breach of the Contract and the breach can be put right but we fail to do so within 30 days from the date you tell us about the breach.
13.2 The Contract may be terminated by us with immediate effect by giving written notice to you:
13.2.1 if you commit a significant breach of the Contract and the breach cannot be put right (which includes a breach by you of the terms of the licence which is granted to you in clause 8);
13.2.2 if you commit a significant breach of the Contract and the breach can be put right but you fail to do so within 30 days from the date we tell you about the breach;
13.2.3 on National Security grounds; or
13.2.4 in the event there is a change in legislation, regulations or administrative practice which means that we can no longer comply with our obligations under the Contract.
13.3 If we terminate the Contract under clause 13.2:
13.3.1 we may terminate your account registration and/or block your access to the Service with immediate effect;
13.3.2 the licence granted to you in clause 8 shall automatically terminate and you agree to either return any Deliverables to us or to destroy them; and
13.3.3 all rights granted to you under these terms and conditions shall cease.
14. Events outside our control
14.1 We will not be liable or responsible for any failure to perform, or delay in performance of, any of our obligations under these terms and conditions that is caused by events outside our reasonable control (Force Majeure Event).
14.2 A Force Majeure Event includes any act, event, non-occurrence, omission or accident beyond our reasonable control and includes, in particular (without limitation), the following:
14.2.1 strikes, lock-outs or other industrial action; or
14.2.2 civil commotion, riot, invasion, terrorist attack or threat of terrorist attack, war (whether declared or not) or threat or preparation for war; or
14.2.3 fire, explosion, storm, flood, earthquake, subsidence, epidemic or other natural disaster; or
14.2.4 public or private telecommunications network failures; or
14.2.5 significant defaults of suppliers or subcontractors; or
14.2.6 significant power outages and/or IT failures.
14.3 Our performance under the Contract is deemed to be suspended for the period that the Force Majeure Event continues, and we will have an extension of time for performance for the duration of that period. We will take reasonable steps to bring the Force Majeure Event to a close or to find a solution by which our obligations under the Contract can be performed despite the Force Majeure Event.
15. Entire agreement
15.1 These terms and conditions represent the entire agreement between us in relation to the subject matter of the Contract and supersede any prior agreement, understanding or arrangement between us, whether oral or in writing.
15.2 We each acknowledge that, in entering into the Contract, neither of us has relied on any representation, undertaking or promise given by the other or be implied from anything said or written in negotiations between us prior to such Contract except as expressly stated in these terms and conditions.
15.3 Neither of us shall have any remedy in respect of any untrue statement made by the other, whether orally or in writing, prior to the date of the Contract (unless such untrue statement was made fraudulently) and the other party's only remedy shall be for breach of contract as provided in these terms and conditions.
16. Assignment
You may not transfer any of your rights or obligations under these terms and conditions to another person without our prior written consent, which we will not withhold unreasonably. We can transfer all or any of our rights and obligations under these terms and conditions to another organisation, but this will not affect your rights under these terms and conditions.
17. Notices
All notices sent by you to us must be sent to the Met Office at Fitzroy Road, Exeter, Devon, EX1 3PB or by email to [email protected] or by fax to +44 (0)1392 885681. We may give notice to you at the postal address and/or email address you provide to us when you place your order, or in any of the ways specified in the paragraph entitled "Written Communications" above. Notice will be deemed received and properly served immediately when posted on our Site, 24 hours after an e-mail is sent, or on transmission if a fax is sent, or three days after the date of posting of any letter. In proving the service of any notice, it will be sufficient to prove, in the case of a letter, that the letter was properly addressed, stamped and placed in the post, in the case of a fax, that the notice was transmitted by fax to the fax number of the party, and, in the case of an e-mail, that the e-mail was sent to the specified e-mail address of the addressee.
18. General
18.1 If any court or competent authority decides that any of the provisions of these terms and conditions are invalid, unlawful or unenforceable to any extent, the term will, to that extent only, be severed from the remaining terms, which will continue to be valid to the fullest extent permitted by law.
18.2 If we fail, at any time while these terms and conditions are in force, to insist that you perform any of your obligations under these terms and conditions, or if we do not exercise any of our rights or remedies under these terms and conditions, that will not mean that we have waived such rights or remedies and will not mean that you do not have to comply with those obligations. If we do waive a default by you; that will not mean that we will automatically waive any subsequent default by you. No waiver by us of any of these terms and conditions shall be effective unless we expressly say that it is a waiver and we tell you so in writing.
18.3 A person who is not party to these terms and conditions shall not have any rights under or in connection with them under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.
19. Changes to these terms and conditions
We have the right, at our sole discretion and at any time, to change or modify these terms and conditions. Any change shall be effective immediately upon posting to the Site. You are responsible for regularly reviewing these terms and conditions to obtain timely notice of any such changes, as they are binding on you. We will post a last amended date at the bottom of this page to assist such review. Your continued use of the Service after such posting shall constitute your acceptance of these terms and conditions as modified.
20. Information about you
20.1 We process information about you in accordance with our Privacy Policy, as may be amended from time to time, unless the Met Office is required to depart from this by applicable law.
20.2 We are governed by the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679), the Law Enforcement Directive (Directive (EU) 2016/680) and any applicable implementing laws as amended from time to time, the Data Protection Act 2018 (to the extent that it relates to processing of personal data and privacy), and all applicable law about the processing of personal data and privacy, which shall together be referred to as the "Data Protection Legislation".
20.3 By providing your details to us, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate.
20.4 You authorise the Met Office to retain and process personal adta provided by you to the Met Office to enable the Met Office to fulfil its obligations under this Contract.
21. Governing law and jurisdiction
These terms and conditions shall be governed by English law and we both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the Courts which are located or based in the United Kingdom.
Last amended on June 26, 2019