CSCEN Code of Conduct and CSCEN Online operating guidelines

Guidance for participating in the Civil Service Climate + Environment Network Activites

We want our network to be a place where everyone can gather to socialise and talk with like-minded people in a safe and welcoming environment. In order to make that happen, we have certain rules we ask all members of our community to adhere to. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but no one is entitled to attack others for that opinion.

All CSCEN Members are civil servants and are expected to adhere to the Civil Service Code when engaging with the Network.

Governance

All users will adhere to the standards for using social and digital media set out below.
Individuals are responsible for their own contribution and for appropriately sharing information. CSCEN does not endorse views shared on the site by members just because they are hosted on the platform.
CSCEN takes responsibility for monitoring appropriate use and sharing of information by members.
CSCEN reserves the right to close and delete accounts of those who do not use the platform in an acceptable manner.
Concerns about content should be addressed to the CSCEN Committee, who will review and remove the content if necessary. Please email environment.network@energysecurity.gov.uk

Information sharing

Information that is shared on the site will be accessible to all site members.
Information that is 'Official Sensitive', or highly classified in any other sense, should not be shared on the site.
The homepage of the site will be the only accessible page to non-members. There will not be any sensitive information shared on the homepage at any times.
Please feel free to refer to relevant documents, other sites or appropriate videos via links on the various interactive pages of the site. If these links are deemed irrelevant or offensive, CSCEN reserves the right to remove these posts.
Where individuals share personal data relating to themselves, they understand that they are sharing this with anyone able to access CSCEN Online.

Access

All civil servants from the following organisations will be permitted to create an account:

a central government department
an executive agency
an executive non-departmental public body (NDPB)
one of the three devolved administrations (Scottish Government, Welsh Government, or Northern Ireland Executive)

No other individuals will be able to access any of the membership pages of the website. Members will be manually verified upon sign-up and there will be ongoing verification of all accounts periodically.

Standards for using social and digital media

You must not post or share anything that would breach the Civil Service Code of Conduct.
Apply common sense.
Apply the same standards online as offline, whether acting in an official or personal capacity.
If in doubt, don’t post it.
Be accurate, check the accuracy and sensitivity of what you are posting.
It’s permanent - once something is posted online, it is difficult to remove.
Take care about commenting on government policies and practices.
Be careful before commenting on any political matters. Don’t comment on politically controversial issues.
Avoid making any kind of personal attacks or tasteless or offensive remarks.
Only disclose and comment on information you are authorised to do so.
Don’t disclose anything that could risk the safety and security of others.
Don’t infringe the privacy of others.
Don’t use social media to air work-related grievances.

Harassment and bullying

We recognise bullying as behaviour that may be characterised as offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting, and the abuse or misuse of power through means intended to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient. Bullying does not need to be deliberate. Whatever form it takes, bullying is unwarranted and unwelcome and can cause embarrassment, fear, humiliation or distress to an individual or group of individuals.

We recognise as harassment any unwelcome verbal or physical behaviour, including sexual advances, when the unwanted conduct has the purpose or effect of either violating another person's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person.

The following list provides examples of the types of behaviour which can amount to harassment, although the list is by no means exhaustive:

Unwelcome verbal conduct: This may include the making of remarks and comments about appearance, lewd comments, sexual advances, innuendo and banter, the making or repetition of offensive or stereotyped comments, jokes or songs, the making of threats and the making of patronising comments.
Unwelcome written or visual interaction: This may include sending unwelcome emails, notes or pictures, and displaying or sending offensive material.

Sending emails or messages (with or without attachments) which breach the terms of the Civil Service Code of Conduct.
Inappropriate copying of email or messages to parties not seen as relevant to the discussion, as a way of intimidating or inappropriately gaining leverage over other members.

CSCEN Online Code of Conduct

CSCEN Online provides a members-only forum for members to learn, share and discuss environmental issues of the day. The forum is not intended to be actively moderated. CSCEN does, however, reserve the right to remove any contribution and/or delete any account that does not meet the following rules of conduct.

Comments and contributions to forum threads should be relevant to the discussion or forum topic.
- To better facilitate conversation, site admins may move off-topic threads to another appropriate forum, close threads or delete posts.
- To maintain quality of discussion, contributions that do not provide a substantive purpose or relevance may be removed.
We encourage members to have open and candid discussions and debates. We will not censor members for expressing an opinion within the limits of reasonableness; however, all communication should be civil and polite, with members testing each other with respect and consideration.
The site must not be used to post, transmit or provide hyperlinks to materials that are knowingly false and/or defamatory, misleading, inaccurate, abusive, hateful or that encourage conduct that is at odds with the Civil Service Code.
Users are encouraged to discuss and share business knowledge and experiences.
Email excerpts of any type of length are not allowed to be posted in any section of the site.
To protect the privacy of members, members may not include others’ personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and emails in any forum area. You may, however, choose to make your own personal information public.
Intellectual property: Forums and blogs may not be used to post material that is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary rights without the express permission of the owner(s) of said copyright, trademark or other proprietary right.
Abusive and harassing behaviour may result in suspension of your ability to post to forums and other member-contributed areas.
Freedom of Information (FoI): CSCEN Online is subject to FoI legislation, which means anything members publish on any channel could be called upon and considered for disclosure in an FoI request. Therefore, please exercise caution when using the site.

Civil Service Code: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code