Online services guidelines        

Editorial values   
Editorial responsibility   
Accuracy   
Fairness, contributors, and consent   
Privacy   
Harm and offence   
Children   
Politics, elections and polling   
War, terror and emergencies   
Equal opportunities and diversity   
Links to external sites   
Credits for outside providers of material   
Partnerships, including partnerships with business   
Interacting with our audiences   
The law   
Accountability and complaints   

Section 17: Accountability and complaints    

Introduction
We are accountable to our audiences. Their continuing trust in the British Council is a crucial part of our contract with them. We will act in good faith by dealing fairly and openly with them.

We are open in admitting mistakes when they are made and encourage a culture of willingness to learn from them.

Complaints procedure
The British Council receives lots of feedback - negative and positive. We treat something as a complaint if it is a criticism which expects a reply and would like things to be changed. The complaints lead for interactive services is Director Corporate Affairs.

User-generated content
British Council message boards and other interactive online spaces operate according to published house rules. These are applied by the moderators with the assistance of alerts from our users.

Rejected messages
Where messages contain substantial problematic content, British Council moderators will normally reject them as a whole rather than edit them. A reason must be given, and they may be resubmitted once altered.

User alerts
Reactive moderation relies on alerts from the public; moderators should treat each alert with care and consideration. If in doubt, moderators should refer an alert to the host for advice and keep the Senior E-Strategy Manager informed.

Each alert must get a clear response in a reasonable time from the moderator.   
A record must be retained of the complaint, the message complained about, the decision reached and the reason given for the decision.   

The procedures must be checked with Senior E-Strategy Manager.

DCSIMG