This Acceptable Use Policy sets out the terms between you and the Police Digital Service company (us) under which you may access the Knowledge Hub website (our site).

This Acceptable Use Policy uses the defined terms set out in our Terms & Conditions.

This Acceptable Use Policy applies to all users of, and visitors to, our site. Your use of our site means that you accept, and agree to adhere to, all the standards in this policy, which supplement our Terms & Conditions. If you do not agree to this policy, you must not use our site.

Our site can  be used to store OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE and OFFICIAL (Non-Sensitive) content, data and material, as defined with the National Police Information Risk Management Team (NPIRMT) document ‘’Guidance on: Handling of Policing data within OFFICIAL’’. This consists of business support information including commercial information and supplier details that is generally available in the public domain or can be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act.

If you violate this policy, or authorise or assist others to do so, we may immediately suspend or terminate your access to our site or any of its facilities.

Prohibited Uses

You may use our site only for lawful purposes. You may not access our site, upload content or engage with other users:

• In any way that violates any applicable local, national, or international statute, rule, order, treaty, law or regulation;
• In any way that is unlawful or fraudulent, or has any unlawful or fraudulent purpose or effect;
• To support or induce illegal or inappropriate activity;
• For gambling and / or gaming purposes in any way;
• In any way that is deceptive, abusive, pornographic, obscene, derogatory, offensive, or otherwise inappropriate;
• To stalk, harm or harass anyone, or attempting to stalk, harm or harass anyone in any way, including minors;
• To violate the rights of others, for example, breaching or misappropriating any intellectual property or proprietary right of another;
• To share material that has protected intellectual property, that has copyright or subject to trademark, or material where the lawful owner has not given permission for publication;
• To impersonate any person or entity or otherwise misrepresent users’ affiliation with a person or entity;
• To publish, send, upload, transmit, knowingly receive, use, facilitate or procure the distribution of, any unsolicited or illicit or unauthorised advertising or promotional material, or any other form of similar solicitation (spam);
• To sell and / or recommend products or endorse products of a third party; and
• To knowingly and wilfully transmit or upload any content that contains viruses, Trojans, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware, or any other harmful programs intended to harmfully affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

You also agree:

• Not to attempt to obtain unauthorised access to any area of our site, whether through hacking, password extraction, or any other means;
• Not to interfere with, damage, or disrupt the operation of our site, any of its facilities, any network or equipment on which our site is stored, or any software used in the provision of our site;
• Not to hack, destabilise, or alter our site facilities, or alter another website to falsely affiliate with our site;
• Not to monitor data or traffic on our site without our authorisation to do so;
• Not to reproduce, copy or re-sell any part of our site in breach of the provisions of our Terms & Conditions;
• Not to disclose copies of any part of our site or any personal or confidential data contained therein in breach of the provisions of our Terms & Conditions; and
• Not to forge, modify or obscure mail headers or assume a senders identity without the senders explicit permission.

System Administrators, Network Administrators and Group Administrators (Admins) have elevated permissions in the Knowledge Hub, as detailed in our site User Roles. If you have been allocated to any of these roles, you respectfully agree to utilise these permissions responsibly and appropriately on our site, in line with the standards in this Acceptable Use Policy.

Content Standards

These standards apply to any and all content, data, and material which you contribute to our site (a “Contribution”), and to any collaborative services associated with it.

We will determine, in our discretion, whether a Contribution breaches these Content Standards.

Content must:

• Comply with applicable regulations and law in the UK and in any country from which it is posted;
• Be completely accurate (where it states facts);
• Be current and relevant;
• Be classified and stored correctly by authors (or Group Contributors); and
• Be regularly reviewed (and modified accordingly) by Group Facilitators to ensure it is relevant, appropriate, classified correctly and accessible only to those with a need-to-know.

As a user you must ensure that the latest versions of any and all content is contributed to our site. It is the responsibility of Group Facilitators to regularly review any and all content that is contributed to their group(s) and remove older versions of any and all content that is no longer valid.

Content must not:

• Contain any material which is offensive, hateful and inflammatory;
• Contain any material which is derogatory of any person or entity;
• Promote violence;
• Promote discrimination based on race, religion, sex, nationality, disability, age or sexual orientation;
• Promote or contain any sexually explicit material;
• Violate any copyright, database right or trademark of any other person or entity;
• Be probable to deceive, threaten, upset, embarrass or alarm any person or entity;
• Be probable to cause annoyance, inconvenience, needless anxiety or invade another’s privacy;
• Be used to imitate any person or entity, or to misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person or entity;
• Be made in violation of any legal obligation owed to a third party, as examples, including, contractual obligation(s) or a duty of confidence; and
• Advocate or facilitate any unlawful activity, for example, copyright infringement.

Our site enables users to interact and communicate instantly with each other and to collaborate, contribute and share content in a regulated manner. This includes contributing to forums, ideas, events, and library documents and commenting on various pages (and content that is contributed). Our intention is to promote professional, fair and reasonable use of our site, not to limit freedom of speech, constructive feedback or control personal expression.

We do expect however that all users of our site exercise responsibility and professionalism in their exchanges and to demonstrate the core values of integrity and respect at all times. Disparaging comments about individuals, other users, other organisations or groups are prohibited on our site. We (alongside our site Group Facilitators) exercise the right to regulate (and remove) any and all comments we deem inappropriate.

Banning, Suspension and Termination

At our discretion, we will regulate whether there has been a violation of this Acceptable Use Policy through your use of our site. When we consider that a breach of this Acceptable Use Policy has occurred, we may take such action as we deem appropriate.

Failure to abide by this Acceptable Use Policy constitutes a material breach of the Terms & Conditions upon which you are permitted to use our site, and this may result in our taking any or all of the following actions:

• Immediate issue of a warning to you;
• Immediate, temporary or permanent deletion of any contribution uploaded or comment or post made by you to our site;
• Consideration of a temporary or permanent ban from the whole or parts of our site or from entire groups;
• Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of your right to access and use our site;
• Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis resulting from the violation (including but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs); and,
• Further legal action against you should the matter be a breach of criminal or civil law.

Users who have been banned from parts or the entirety of a group are provided with a route for escalating a complaint against the ban. To do so, please contact the Site Administrator by raising a ticket via the Support Email. This will be dealt with within one working week wherever possible.

We may report any activity that we reasonably suspect violates any law to appropriate enforcement authorities, officials, regulators, or other appropriate third parties. We may also disclose user information and systems and network information related to alleged violations of this Acceptable Use Policy, where we reasonably feel this is necessary or as required by law.

We exclude liability for any actions taken in response to violations of this Acceptable Use Policy. The actions described in this Acceptable Use Policy are not limited, and we may take any other action we reasonably consider appropriate.

Changes to this Acceptable Use Policy

We may revise this Acceptable Use Policy at any time by amendment. It will be your responsibility to check, from time to time, for any changes we make, as they are binding on you. 

Report Violations

You can report violations of this Acceptable Use Policy to our support via our Support Email.

Contact Us

Support Email