1.1. "Assignment Specification" means our assignment specification from time to time which sets out the scope of the Consultancy Services that you require us to supply to you, a copy of which is available on request.

"Account Services" means any Services that we provide to customers who open an account with us and purchase credits with which they can purchase Data.

"Conditions" means these terms and conditions.

"Consultant" means the individual whom we appoint to provide the Consultancy Services to you.

"Consultancy Services" means the services that we agree to supply to you pursuant to an Assignment Specification and which may include the supply of Data and/or Reports.

"Consumer" means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his or her business.

"Data" means meteorological, environmental, hydrological or oceanographic data (whether historical or otherwise) and/or software, graphs, graphics, drawings, documents, trade marks, know-how or any other material provided (in whatever medium) as part of the Services or Consultancy Services.

"Fees" means in respect of the Consultancy Services, the sums payable by you to us including any disbursements set out in the Assignment Specification and, in respect of the Services, either the amount posted on the web site or as otherwise notified to you when you place the Order, in each case together with all VAT, taxes and duties at the rate prevailing at the date the Services or Consultancy Services (or relevant part) are provided.

"Intellectual Property Rights" means any intellectual property right including but not limited to copyright, moral right, database right, patent, trade mark, domain name, trade secret or design right (whether registered or unregistered) or where relevant any application for any such rights in any jurisdiction.

"Mobile Services" means the Services that we supply to your mobile telephone whether in the form of a text message or graphical representation or otherwise.

"Names" means any name under which we elect to supply the Services or Consultancy Services including without limitation, "Met Office", "MetWEB", "MetFAX" "Time and Place" but excluding "Weathercall".

"Order" means your request for us to deliver the Services whether verbally or in writing and whether electronically or otherwise or in the case of Consultancy Services, communication to us of your approval of the Assignment Specification.

"Permitted Use" means the purpose for which the Data and/or Reports may be used. This may be set out on the web site and will be notified to you at the time you place an Order.

"Premium Services" means the Services that we supply via our premium telephone line including, without limitation, the Services supplied under the name MetFAX and Weathercall.

"Reports" means any reports, documents, know-how or computer applications that we may supply to you in the course of the Consultancy Services, whether in draft form or otherwise.

"Services" means the services that we provide to you pursuant to an Order comprising the provision of Data including without limitation the Account Services, the Mobile Services and the Premium Services but excluding Consultancy Services.

"Term" means in respect of the Services, either the period during which we agree to supply you with the Services or, if the Service is a one-off service, each separate occasion on which you purchase the Service and in respect of the Consultancy Services the period set out in the Assignment Specification.

"We" "us" "our" means the Met Office, a Trading Fund of the Ministry of Defence.

"web site" means the web site which we use to deliver the particular Services or Consultancy Services.

"Working Day" means Mondays to Fridays except for bank and public holidays. A Working Day shall consist of up to eight working hours unless otherwise specified in an Assignment Specification.

"You" means the person, firm or company to whom we provide the Services or Consultancy Services.

3.1. In consideration of your paying us the Fees we will provide you with the Services for the Term. You will use the Data solely for the Permitted Use.

3.2. A contract for the provision of Services will come into force either when we accept an Order in writing or when we first make available or deliver the Services to you, whichever occurs first.

3.3. We reserve the right at any time, subject to reasonable notice, to suspend the Services for the purposes of repair, maintenance or support, or in the event of any actual or suspected breach by you of these Conditions, or immediately if there is or we believe or suspect there is any fault in the Services or in any system used by you.

3.4. You will (if applicable) keep all passwords, PINs and user ids secure and confidential and will inform us immediately you become aware of or suspect any unauthorised use or breach of security or fraud. You accept that we may suspend or change any password, PIN or user id.

3.5. You accept that it may be necessary to upgrade or change the content of the Services during the Term.

4.1. In consideration of your paying us the Fees we will provide you with the Consultancy Services for the Term. You will use the Data and/or Reports solely for the Permitted Use.

4.2. A contract for the provision of Consultancy Services will come into force either when we accept an Order in writing or when we first make available or deliver the Consultancy Services. Unless we agree otherwise in writing, we will only supply the Consultancy Services on Working Days.

4.3. Unless we agree otherwise in writing, we reserve the right to change the Consultant at any time without giving you notice.

4.4. You acknowledge that the contents of any Reports shall be confidential and you agree not to disclose or disseminate the Reports (in whole or part) to any third party without our prior written agreement.

5.1. Subject to Conditions 5.2 to 5.4, we will not be obliged to supply you with any Services or Consultancy Services until you have paid us the Fees in full.

5.2. No Fees will be payable for Mobile Services nor Premium Services but you will be liable to pay for the cost of the telephone call at the rate specified on the web site

5.3. We may, in our absolute discretion, allow you to pay for Services (with the exception of Mobile Services and Premium Services) by invoice. In such circumstances, if you fail to pay the Fees or any part of the Fees in accordance with the payment terms set out in our invoice then, without prejudice to our other rights and remedies, we may suspend any Services and charge interest on the amount outstanding in accordance with the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998 (as amended) from the date of the invoice until we receive full payment in cleared funds (both before and after any judgment).

5.4. We reserve the right to require you to make advance payments on account of the Fees before we provide any Services or Consultancy Services.

5.5. You acknowledge that you will retain the risk of exchange rate fluctuations for all payments made in approved foreign currencies.

6.1. Whilst we will use reasonable skill and care in the provision of the Services and the Consultancy Services, because of the inexact nature of forecasting, we do not warrant that the Data will be fit for your particular purpose nor do we warrant the accuracy or completeness of any Data. We cannot accept any liability for any losses incurred by you or any third party as a result of your or their reliance on Data and/or Reports or any other information supplied to you as part of the Services or the Consultancy Services.

6.2. We do not represent or warrant that you will have uninterrupted access to the Services nor that errors in the Data will or can be rectified.

6.3. We exclude all other warranties, conditions, terms, undertakings and obligations whether express or implied by statute or otherwise to the fullest extent permitted by law. HOWEVER NOTHING IN THESE CONDITIONS AFFECTS THE STATUTORY RIGHTS OF A CONSUMER.

7.1. Any and all proprietary rights in the Data, the Services and the Reports are subject to Crown copyright protection. You will not acquire nor will you attempt to register any Intellectual Property Rights in the Data and/or Reports. You may view, print and use the Data and/or Reports we provide solely for the Permitted Use but any other proposed use of the Data and/or Reports is subject to a copyright licence available from us. In particular, but without limitation, you agree not, to copy, reproduce, display, promote or licence the Data and/or Reports or any part of them to any third party, whether for profit or otherwise, without our prior written consent.

7.2. "Met Office" and its logo(s) are registered trade marks of the Met Office. You do not have the right to use or reproduce our logo(s) without our prior written authorisation.

7.3. Nothing in these Conditions transfers to you the copyright or any other Intellectual Property Rights in the Names, any software, software tools, design concepts, know-how, techniques or methodologies which we use in producing Data or the Reports or providing the Services, the ownership of which remains absolutely with us (on behalf of the British Crown).

7.4. You will give us any assistance we may require to enable us to obtain, defend and enforce the proprietary and Intellectual Property Rights in the Data, the Reports and the Services.

7.5. You will effect and maintain adequate security measures to safeguard the Data, the Reports and the Services from access or use by any unauthorised person. You will notify us immediately if you become aware of any unauthorised use of the Services by anyone or of any actual or potential infringement of our Intellectual Property Rights in the Data and/or Reports. You will permit us at any time to check that the use of the Data, the Reports and the Services is in accordance with these Conditions.

8.1. Notwithstanding anything else contained in these Conditions, we may, at our option, suspend or terminate the Services or Consultancy Services immediately on giving notice to you if:

8.2. Any suspension of the Services or Consultancy Services on our part will not prejudice our right to terminate the Services or Consultancy Services later, for the same or a different reason.

8.3. Should we terminate the Services or Consultancy Services under Condition 8.1, you will remain liable to pay us any portion of the Fees which remains unpaid in respect of the Services for the remainder of the Term together with any expenses we have incurred or have agreed to incur in connection with any work done or to be done for you.

8.4. The termination or expiry of the Services or Consultancy Services for any reason:

8.5. Subject to clause 10, you do not have a right of early termination or cancellation of the Services or Consultancy Services unless we agree to your request in writing and upon such terms as we may agree and in this event we may, but shall not be obliged to make a partial refund of the Fees you have paid, entirely at our discretion.

10.1. If you are a Consumer with whom we have agreed at a distance to provide the Services then you may have a right to cancel the agreement for those Services and obtain a refund provided:

10.2. In the event the Services are not within the scope of those excluded Services set out in 10.1.1 and 10.1.2 above, then you may give us notice to cancel the Services, provided we receive such notification before we make the Services available to you.

10.3. In the event that the Services comprise the provision of goods then you may cancel the agreement to purchase those goods, provided you do so in writing within 7 days after delivery of the goods and promptly return the goods at your own expense in good condition.

10.4. The provisions of the Consumer Protection (Distance Selling) Regulations 2000 restricting your entitlement to cancel any agreement incorporating these Conditions shall apply.

11.1. We will not be liable to you for loss of actual or anticipated profits or savings, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss or spoiling of data, loss of contracts, or for any indirect or consequential loss, whether arising from negligence, or breach of contract, or in any other way, even if we were advised of, or knew of the likelihood of, that loss or type of loss arising.

11.2. Without prejudice to Condition 6.1 and 11.1, our liability for direct loss whether in contract, or tort (including negligence) or arising in any other way, will not exceed 200% of the amount you have paid to us or is payable for that part of the Services or Consultancy Services from which your claim for loss arises.

11.3. You acknowledge that the above exclusions and limitations have been drawn to your attention and are a fair apportionment of risk bearing in mind the amount of the Fees, the nature of the Data and/or Reports and the circumstances outlined in Conditions 3.2 and 3.3.

11.4. You will keep us fully and effectually indemnified against all actions, claims, proceedings, costs and/or damages together with all legal costs or expenses that we incur as a result of contracting with you (including any claims made by third parties against you or us paid by you to compromise or settle any claim made by a third party based on your use of the Data and/or Reports).

12.1. No failure or delay by us to exercise any right, power or remedy will operate as a waiver of it nor will any partial exercise preclude any further exercise of the same or some other right, power or remedy.

12.2. These Conditions supersede all prior agreements, arrangements and understandings between you and us and constitute the entire agreement between you and us relating to the Services. These Conditions shall prevail over any terms or conditions that you seek to introduce that are not expressly contained within these Conditions. We may vary these Conditions at any time for whatever reason provided we publish such varied Conditions on the web site or otherwise notify you of such change.

12.3. You may not assign, transfer, sub-contract or sub-license your rights or obligations under these Conditions or sell-on or share any Data and/or Reports, whether in whole or in part, without first obtaining our written consent.

12.4. All notices to be given must be in writing and be sent to us at our address set out on the standard form of contract or be sent to you at your registered office or principal place of business or any contact e-mail address you give us from time to time.

12.5. The headings to these Conditions are for ease of reference only, and do not affect the interpretation or construction of these Conditions.

12.6. Time will not be of the essence in respect of the Services provided subject to these Conditions.

12.7. If any of these Conditions are, for any reason, held to be unenforceable, illegal or invalid, that unenforceability, illegality or invalidity will not affect any other provisions which will continue in full force and effect.

12.8. Contracts incorporating these Conditions do not grant to anyone other than the parties the right to enforce any term of such contracts in his own right and the parties declare that they have no intention to grant any such right.

12.9. Contracts incorporating these Conditions shall be construed and enforced in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. The English Courts shall have exclusive jurisdiction to deal with any dispute that arises out of or in connection with contracts incorporating these Conditions.