Marine Enhancement Directory (MEnD) – Terms & Conditions 

1.      Definitions  

Administrator - Administrators are responsible for managing, overseeing and maintaining MEnD, this includes day to day operations, ensuring platform functionality, quality assuring the submitted information, approving content displayed, and granting user permissions. The MEnD project team are the administrators, this includes the Environment Agency and The Crown Estate staff, as well as those contracted to this role e.g. external consultants, this could also include future funders of MEnD not listed here. 

Practitioner - The organisations, groups or individuals delivering the enhancement activity.  

Regulator - Organisations with a legal regulatory role to ensure the protection and management of the environment. This includes organisations across the UK, including DEFRA group (England and Wales), DAERA (Northern Ireland), Marine Directorate/ NatureScot (Scotland). 

Marine Enhancement Directory - The UK’s central repository for estuarine, coastal and offshore habitat creation and restoration projects. 

Intellectual Property (IP) - Refers to “Intellectual Property” means all rights of any kind in or to any intellectual or industrial property, including but not limited to patents, registered and unregistered designs, copyright, database rights, trademarks, trade names, domain names, rights in computer software, know-how, trade secrets, and all applications for, and renewals or extensions of, such rights, whether registered or unregistered and existing anywhere in the world.  

Public information - Refers to information which is publicly viewable on www.mend.eco without logging in. 

Restricted information - Refers to information which is not publicly viewable, and has been labelled as restricted, only administrators and regulators, and the project owners can view. For projects with restricted location information, this will display as a generalised point on the map. 

Project Owner(s) – The individual who has created the project entry and the individuals who they have assigned to help keep the project entry up to date.  

Government – This includes UK government and associated agencies. 

 

2.      About these Terms & Conditions 

These T&Cs govern your use of the Marine Enhancement Directory (“MEnD”). By creating an account and log in for the platform you agree to them.  

Data submitted to the platform will be managed in line with the Open Government Licence (OGL), which permits free use, re-use and distribution of the information provided that appropriate attribution is given. 

Suggestion attribution: 

If using information on a single project, we recommend the following attribution: [Lead Organisation], [Project Name], information taken from the Marine Enhancement Directory (mend.eco). Accessed DD MM YYYY.  

If using information from multiple projects, we recommend the following attribution: 

Information taken from the Marine Enhancement Directory (mend.eco). Accessed DD MM YYYY.  

 

3.      Purpose of the Platform 

MEnD is provided to record, monitor and share information on marine, estuarine and coastal enhancement and restoration projects in the UK. It is for information and collaboration only and does not provide commercial services. 

 

4.      Who can use the Platform 

Public users may view projects but not restricted information. Public users cannot add or edit project data. 

Practitioners, Regulators and Administrators may submit, manage or review project data. 

 

5.      Data submitted to the Platform 

Public fields. Some of the information you enter will always be public. This includes basic project details such as the project name, country, stage, start and end dates, type of project, time period, location (point data), project drivers, aims and objectives, monitoring and evaluation, target features, enhancement type and methods used, enhancement area, baseline habitats, lead organisation, associated licence numbers, delivery organisations and connection to wider initiatives, and any documents or images you choose to upload. These fields are made public so that the wider community can see and learn from ongoing and completed projects. 

Restricted fields. Some of the information may be hidden at the Project Owners choice, including location shapefile polygons, budgets, funders, project success, lessons learnt and project owners. Restricted data can be accessed by Administrators, Regulators and Project Owner (s). Information is marked as restricted, by ticking the boxes within the ‘Data Visibility Settings’ section of the project entry form. This can be turned on/off during project lifetime if contributor chooses to. 

Project Owner (s) are responsible for the accuracy and legality of information you upload. 

All data submitted to the platform may be used to inform government decision-making and the development of future policies. Where such data is used for policy purposes, it will be anonymised and aggregated. No individual project or contributor will be identified without prior consent. 

Administrators may add, review and edit project data. Admins and Regulators can view and extract all data (public and restricted). Administrator also have additional responsibilities for quality assurance of data before publication. 

 

6.      Freedom of Information and Environmental Information Regulations (FOI/EIR) 

The Environment Agency and The Crown Estate are subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Environmental Information Regulations 2004. This means that even data marked as “restricted” may still be disclosed if required by law. Users should not upload confidential or sensitive information unless they accept that it could be released under FOI/EIR. 

 

7.      Personal data 

• The only personal data collected is individuals username and chosen email address. We encourage the use of organisation email addresses as opposed to personal email addresses. 
• This is stored securely in UK/EU data centres (Microsoft Azure). 
• Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. 
• Accounts can be deleted on request. The Project Owner(s) personal data will be deleted after 7 years from when a project is marked as completed. 

 

8.      Intellectual Property & Licences 

The Environment Agency owns the IP with regards to the Marine Enhancement Directory as an online platform (this includes but not limited to, infrastructure/ source code / data structure). The IP associated with information which is entered by users, is owned by each organisation or individual. 

Project Owner(s) must only upload material that they have the right to use and share in this platform according to these T&C. This includes any text, data, images, maps, documents, or other content. You must not upload material protected by Intellectual Property, trade secrets, or other proprietary rights unless you have permission from the rights holder. 

The Environment Agency (and other Defra Group bodies) and The Crown Estate are not responsible or liable for any copyright infringement, misuse of proprietary information, or breach of intellectual property rights resulting from content uploaded by users. 

By submitting material to the platform, you agree to protect, indemnify and hold harmless the Environment Agency, the Defra Group and The Crown Estate against any claims, demands, losses, damages, costs, or expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising from third-party claims relating to your uploaded material. 

Project Owner(s) acknowledge and agree that any information or material, of any nature, uploaded to the platform may be shared with The Crown Estate and other organisations as applicable for the purposes of project delivery, oversight, and collaboration. 

 

9.      Acceptable Use 

Do not upload unlawful, offensive, or misleading material. 

Do not attempt to interfere with the platform’s security or operations. 

 

10.  Disclaimer 

MEnD is provided “as is”. No guarantee is given on accuracy, completeness, or availability. The Environment Agency and The Crown Estate accept no liability for loss or damage resulting from reliance on the platform or its data.  

 

11.  Termination of Use 

Accounts may be suspended or removed if these T&C are breached.

 

12.  Governing Law 

These T&C are governed by English law and any disputes will be dealt with by the courts of England and Wales.