Terms and Conditions

Our guarantee

GSNI will make reasonable endeavours to ensure that the records you order are delivered promptly and at a reasonable cost. If you find that your purchase does not match what you have ordered, you will be provided with a full refund for the item(s) if you inform us within 7 days of receiving the item(s). If the delivery is defective in any way, we will send you a replacement or again give you a full refund (including postage costs) if a replacement is unavailable. This guarantee does not affect your statutory rights

The GSNI Enquiry Service (contact details below) will be happy to help you if you have queries or difficulties in ordering products or have problems with delivery.

Exclusion of Liability

Your use of information provided by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland ("GSNI") is at your own risk. Please read any warnings given about the limitations of the information, including those listed below.

If the file on which the information is delivered to you is corrupt or is otherwise unusable then please inform GSNI (contact details below) within 7 days and we will replace it.

Neither the GSNI nor the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) gives any warranty, condition or representation as to the quality, accuracy or completeness of the information or the medium on which it is provided, or its suitability for any use or purpose. All implied conditions relating to the quality or suitability of the information and the medium on which it is provided, and all liabilities arising from the supply of the information (including any liability arising in negligence) are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

No advice or information given by GSNI, DETI or their respective employees or authorised agents shall create a warranty, condition or representation as to the quality, accuracy or completeness of the information or its suitability for any use or purpose.

GSNI excludes all liability arising from any errors or omissions in any data provided by you. Except as stated above, GSNI accepts no liability for any loss or damage which may be caused by the condition of the disk or file in which the information is provided to you, and you are expected to operate suitable anti-virus software before loading it into your computer system. You are responsible for ensuring that the form of the information you have ordered is compatible with your computer system and any other data with which the information is to be used.

Customers should be aware of the following factors and limitations that may affect the quality or accuracy of records information supplied:

1. Geological observations are made according to the prevailing understanding of the subject at the time. The quality of such observations may be affected by subsequent advances in knowledge or improved methods of interpretation.
2. Raw data may have been transcribed from analogue to digital format, or may have been acquired by means of automated measuring techniques. Although such processes are subjected to quality control to ensure reliability where possible, some raw data may have been processed without human intervention and may in consequence contain undetected errors.
3. Although records are maintained with all reasonable care, there may be some deterioration in the long term.
4. The most appropriate techniques for copying original records are used, but there may be some loss of detail and dimensional distortion when such records are copied.
5. Data supplied by external organisations to GSNI, and which GSNI makes available to others, is provided 'as is' without warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of fitness for a purpose.
6. Data, information and related records that have been donated to GSNI have been produced for a specific purpose, and that may affect the type and completeness of the data recorded and any interpretation. The nature and purpose of data collection, and the age of the resultant material may render it unsuitable for certain applications/uses. Customers/recipients of such material are advised that it is their responsibility to verify the suitability of the material for their intended usage.
7. The data, information and related records supplied by GSNI should not be taken as a substitute for specialist interpretations, professional advice and/or detailed site investigations. Professional advice should be sought before making technical interpretations on the basis of the materials provided.

Availability of goods

The GSNI GeoRecords Website and the GSNI GeoIndex show where the various records are available. However, if for some reason, after you have paid for a record, GSNI is unable to provide it (for example, due to data or computing problems), we will inform you and offer an alternative record or a full refund.

Some of the records held in the GSNI archive were donated under conditions of confidentiality. For most of these confidential records, the GSNI is able to tell you that the records exist, and their location will, therefore, be displayed on the index maps on the GSNI Website but we will not be able to provide you with a copy immediately. You will, however, be able to place a request to obtain details about the owners of the records who you can then contact to request release of the data. Once this is obtained you will then have to supply the GSNI with written confirmation of release, and we will then be able provide you with a copy of the records concerned.

Prices, payment and VAT

Prices quoted in printed leaflets and internet pages are liable to change without prior notice.

Payment can currently only be accepted in Sterling, but may be made by credit or debit card (not by charge card, e.g. Amex).

GSNI reserves the right not to supply goods to purchasers who have previously defaulted on payment, or where there is reasonable evidence that a fraudulent credit card payment may be involved.

Value Added Tax (VAT) will be charged in accordance with current regulations.

Delivery

Records ordered from the GSNI Enquiry Service will be dispatched using your requested method, options being: prints/photocopies by standard post/special delivery/faxing, or digital files (PDF format) by e-mail (if file size allows) or on CD/DVD by post. Records will normally be dispatched within 10 working days from receipt of the order.

On top of these quoted dispatch times, please allow five days for postage in the UK, seven days in the EU and up to 30 days elsewhere. If your order is delayed beyond this time, please contact GSNI immediately (contact details below). Standard Postal Delivery charges are included in the price of the records. You will only be charged the amount quoted. If you require special delivery arrangements to be made, please contact us before placing your order.

Lost, damaged or incorrectly supplied goods

GSNI will take all reasonable steps to replace items damaged in transit or those that have been supplied in error. Where this is not possible, a full refund will be made (please see Availability above).

If goods are lost or damaged in transit, or have been incorrectly supplied, you should retain them together with all packaging and documents, and notify GSNI immediately. You should do this by letter, fax or email within 7 days of receiving the goods: beyond this period we cannot guarantee that replacements will be available. You then have the choice of having a replacement item or a full refund. Please ensure you quote any customer order numbers and include your full name and address in any communications.

Please do not return any faulty or incorrect goods unless asked to do so. We will give you instructions on how, or whether, to return these items, and may ask you to supply appropriate documents.

Complaints

We would hope that the vast majority of potential problems can be resolved by simply contacting GSNI. If, however, you are not satisfied that the problem has been resolved or handled to your satisfaction, you may wish to make a formal complaint. Your complaint can be sent to GSNI by post, fax or e-mail. In all cases you should aim to provide as much relevant information as possible so that we can deal with your complaint as promptly as possible. Please also include your contact details in case we need to obtain more details from you.

All complaints should be sent to the Enquiries Manager (contact details below).

You will receive an acknowledgement that your complaint has been received.

When acknowledging receipt of your complaint, we will give an indication of how long it will take to send you a detailed response. In most cases, we would aim to provide a detailed response within ten working days. However, this may not always prove possible, especially if we need to obtain further information. In these cases, we will keep you fully informed on the progress of your complaint, and endeavour to provide you with as full a response as possible as soon as we can.

Legal issues

In the event of a dispute over the description or supply of goods, payment, or ownership, the contract will be deemed to have been made within Northern Ireland and will therefore be subject to the laws of Northern Ireland.

The GSNI regrets that we are only able to handle enquiries and conduct business matters in English.

The historical records held by the GSNI date back to the 18th Century. During this long period the meaning of some words has changed, and the meaning of some of the colloquial descriptive terms has been lost. In rare instances some historic records contain words once used commonly that might now cause offence. GSNI policy is to provide the records in their original state without amendment or excision of content.

Data protection

Please see our 'Privacy policy'.

Copyright

The copyright of materials derived from the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland’s work is vested in DETI and/or the commissioning authority under whose auspices the relevant work was carried out. No part of these materials supplied through the GeoRecords service may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior written permission of DETI, through the Director, Geological Survey of Northern Ireland.

Permission to reproduce GSNI materials

Permission to reproduce such materials must be sought in writing from the Intellectual Property Rights Manager, GSNI, Belfast.

A basic GSNI copyright licence may be taken out which authorises a licensee to include extracts of GSNI maps and other data in documentation passed to third parties for a 12 month period.

Third parties receiving copies of GSNI materials under a licence may not recopy them unless prior permission has been obtained from the Intellectual Property Rights Manager.

A basic GSNI licence does not cover any form of digital copying or manipulation; digital data are subject to specific licensing and royalty arrangements, for which specific permission is required.

Ownership and conditions of use

In order to comply with ownership rights and any express conditions of deposit, information supplied by GSNI is provided on the strict understanding that it is for the sole use of the customer, and will not be passed in whole or in part to a third party. This does not preclude its use for the purpose of satisfying a consultancy contract for which the information was sought.

Contact details for all enquiries

GSNI
Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment
Dundonald House
Upper Newtownards Road
Belfast
BT4 3SB
Tel: 028 9038 8462
Fax: 028 9038 8461
Email: gsni@detini.gov.uk