Booking, Payment and Cancellation Terms

Read this first

These terms are written to be used from the point at which we are able to accept bookings. Until centre

approval is confirmed in writing by NOCN, we do not take enrolments or deposits, and the website offers registration of interest only. Registering interest creates no contract, no place and no payment obligation, and these terms do not apply to it.

Part A — The agreement

Who we are and what these terms do

These terms govern the contract between you and Obsidian Arc Training Ltd, company number 17401446, registered office 14 Alum Way, Fareham, England, PO16 8RJ (“we”, “us”, “our”), for the supply of training and, where applicable, for entering you for a regulated qualification.

Contact us at [email protected].

Part A applies to everyone. Part B applies only where you are a consumer — an individual buying for purposes wholly or mainly outside your trade, business, craft or profession. Part C applies only where you are a business

— including where an employer books for its staff. Where Part B and Part C conflict with Part A, Parts B and C take precedence for the relevant buyer.

How a contract is formed

1. You submit a booking, by our booking form, by email or by signed order.
2. Your booking is an offer to buy. It is not accepted until we confirm it.
3. We accept by sending a booking confirmation. At that point a contract comes into existence between us on these terms.
4. If we cannot accept — because the course is full, because you do not meet the entry requirements, or for any other reason — we will tell you and will not charge you. Any payment taken is refunded in full.

Entry requirements

You must satisfy us, before the course begins, that you:

1. are aged 18 or over at the start of the course;
2. can provide identification sufficient for us to register you with the awarding body;
3. have completed our initial assessment, which confirms that the qualification is appropriate for you and that you can reasonably be expected to achieve at Level 3, including the literacy and digital skills element.

If the initial assessment shows the course is not right for you, we will tell you before you commit, and if you have already paid we will refund you in full. We would rather lose a booking than enrol someone who cannot succeed.

The qualification, and the condition on which we sell it

1. The regulated qualification is the NOCN Level 3 Award in Open Source Intelligence, qualification number 610/7695/8. It is awarded by NOCN and regulated by Ofqual. We deliver and assess it; we do not award it.
2. Certification is decided by NOCN, not by us. We cannot guarantee that you will pass, and we do not guarantee a certification date.
3. Condition precedent. Where a booking is for the regulated qualification, our obligation to enter you for it is conditional on us holding the necessary awarding body approval to deliver it at the time of delivery. If that approval is not in place, or is withdrawn, so that we cannot enter you for the qualification, you may cancel and we will refund every penny you have paid, in full, within 14 days. This is in addition to any other remedy you have. We will tell you as soon as we know.
4. Where we deliver non-regulated training, we say so clearly at the point of sale and no certificate of qualification is issued — only a certificate of attendance or completion.

Fees, VAT and payment

1. Fees are as stated in the booking confirmation. Published prices may change, but the price in your booking confirmation is the price you pay.
2. Fees are stated exclusive of VAT. 
3. Fees cover tuition, course materials, assessment, internal quality assurance and one entry for certification. They do not cover travel, accommodation, subsistence, re-sit fees or replacement certificates unless we say so in writing.
4. Payment terms are set out in Parts B and C.
5. Re-sits. One re-assessment opportunity is included where an assessment decision is “not yet achieved”. Further attempts are charged at our published re-sit rate, and are subject to the awarding body’s rules.
6. Replacement certificates are charged at the awarding body’s fee plus our administration charge, published on request.

What we will do

We will deliver the training with reasonable care and skill, using tutors and assessors who meet the awarding body’s occupational competence and quality assurance requirements, and we will assess your work against the published assessment criteria.

We may make reasonable changes to the timetable, the running order, the venue within the same locality, the delivery platform, or the named tutor, without reducing the content or the standard of the course. If we make a change that materially and adversely affects you, we will tell you and you may cancel and receive a full refund of fees for the part of the course not delivered.

What you will do

You will:

1. attend and participate — we will tell you the minimum attendance required before you start;
2. submit your own work, and not present anyone else’s as your own;
3. tell us promptly if your circumstances change in a way that affects your ability to complete;
4. treat our staff, our other learners and our materials properly;
5. comply with the acceptable use rules at clause 8.

Acceptable use — this course teaches capability

This is a course in open source intelligence. What we teach can be misused. So:

1. You must not use techniques, tools or material from the course to carry out any activity that is unlawful, that breaches data protection law, that constitutes harassment or stalking, or that would breach the Computer Misuse Act 1990.
2. You must not conduct research on live subjects for the purposes of an exercise without our express instruction, and you must follow the legal and ethical framework taught in the course.
3. You must not record, photograph, stream or otherwise capture any session without our written consent.
4. You must not share course materials, credentials, tool access or exercise material with anyone outside the course.
5. Where you are a serving member of a police force, government department, the armed forces or a regulated profession, you remain bound by your own organisation’s rules, and nothing we teach overrides them.

We may exclude you from a course immediately, without refund, for a serious breach of this clause, and we may report it to your employer, to your regulator or to the police where we consider it necessary. We do not expect to use this power. We are not willing to be without it.

Reasonable adjustments and special considerations

Tell us as early as you can if you need a reasonable adjustment or believe a special consideration applies. We apply the NOCN Reasonable Adjustments and Special Considerations Policy. Some adjustments require the awarding body’s approval and cannot be arranged at short notice, so early notice matters. We treat the information you give us as confidential and handle it as set out in our Privacy Policy.

Intellectual property

All course materials remain our property or that of our licensors. We grant you a personal, non-transferable, non-exclusive licence to use them for your own learning and, where you are a business user, for the internal purposes of your organisation. You may not copy, distribute, publish, sell or use them to deliver training to anyone else.

Data protection

We handle personal information as set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of this contract. In summary: we register learners with NOCN, we hold assessment records for as long as the awarding body requires, and where an employer pays for your course we report enrolment, attendance and outcome to them and nothing more without your consent.

Complaints and appeals

1. Complaints about our service are handled under our Complaints Policy. Tell us first; most things are fixed quickly.
2. Appeals against an assessment decision are handled under our Appeals Policy, and may be escalated to NOCN and, in certain circumstances, to Ofqual. The learner handbook sets out the steps and the time limits.
3. Neither route affects your statutory rights.

Liability

1. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded.
2. We are not liable for any failure to obtain a qualification, for any employment or contractual consequence of that failure, or for any decision made by the awarding body or a regulator.
3. Subject to clause 13.1, and where you are a business, our total liability in connection with a contract is limited to the fees paid under it, and we are not liable for loss of profit, loss of business, loss of contracts, loss of anticipated savings, business interruption, loss of goodwill, or any indirect or consequential loss.
4. Where you are a consumer, we are responsible for foreseeable loss and damage caused by our breach or lack of reasonable care and skill, and clause 13.3 does not apply to you.

Events outside our control

Neither party is liable for a failure or delay caused by an event outside its reasonable control. If such an event prevents us delivering a course, we will offer you a place on the next available equivalent course or a refund of fees for the part not delivered. If it continues for more than 60 days, either of us may end the contract and we will refund the undelivered portion.

General

1. We may transfer our rights and obligations to another organisation, and will tell you if we do. You may not transfer yours without our written consent, except as clause 19 allows.
2. This contract is between you and us. No one else has rights under it.
3. If a court finds any part of these terms unlawful, the rest continues in force.
4. A delay in enforcing these terms is not a waiver.
5. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales. The courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction, save that a consumer resident in Scotland or Northern Ireland may also bring proceedings there.

Part B — If you are a consumer

Your right to change your mind

Because you are buying at a distance or off our premises, you have a legal right to cancel under the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013.

1. You have 14 days to change your mind, starting the day after we send your booking confirmation. You do not need to give a reason.
2. To cancel, tell us clearly — by email to [email protected], by post, or by using the model cancellation form at the end of these terms. Keep a copy. An email sent on the last day of the period is in time.
3. We will refund you within 14 days of being told, by the method you used to pay.

If you ask us to start within the 14 days

Some of our courses begin, or give access to materials, inside the cancellation period. If that applies:

1. We will ask you to expressly request that we begin during the cancellation period, and to acknowledge that you will lose the right to cancel once the course has been fully performed. We will ask for that in a durable form and keep the record.
2. If you then cancel part way through, you must pay for what you have had — an amount in proportion to what was supplied up to the moment you told us, measured against the full price of the contract. We will refund the balance.
3. If the course has been fully performed before you cancel, having made that request and acknowledgement, the right to cancel is gone.
4. If you did not make that request, we will not begin before the 14 days are up.

Cancellation after the 14 days, and transfers

Outside the statutory period, and where the right to cancel no longer applies, the following applies to a course with a fixed start date. We hold a place for you and turn others away, so the closer to the start, the more of the fee we keep.

1. Transfer. Instead of cancelling, you may move once to another scheduled course starting within 6 months, free of charge, if you tell us more than 14 days before the start date. A second transfer is charged at 25% of the course fee.
2. Non-attendance without notice is treated as a cancellation on the day of the course.
3. Discretion. Where you cannot attend for a serious reason outside your control — bereavement, sudden illness, emergency deployment — write to us. We will deal with it sensibly and we do not require you to prove hardship.

Payment

Payment in full is due at booking unless we agree otherwise in writing. Where we offer instalments, missing an instalment by more than 14 days allows us to suspend access until it is paid.

If we cancel

If we cancel or postpone a course, you may take a place on the next equivalent course or a full refund of the fee, at your choice. We will also refund any non-refundable travel or accommodation you have reasonably incurred and can evidence, up to £[XX] per person, where we cancel with fewer than 14 days’ notice. We do not have to offer that. We think it is right.

Minimum numbers

Courses run subject to minimum numbers. We will confirm or cancel a scheduled course no later than 21 days

before the start date. Do not book non-refundable travel before you have that confirmation.

Part C — If you are a business

Application

Part C applies where you are buying in the course of a business, including where you are an employer booking places for your staff. The statutory cancellation right in Part B does not apply to you.

Payment

1. Invoices are payable within 30 days of the invoice date, or before the course starts, whichever is earlier, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
2. We may require a deposit of up to 25 per cent to secure a closed cohort date.
3. Interest and compensation on late payment run under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998.
4. We may withhold certification claims, and suspend delivery, where fees are overdue by more than 30 days. We will tell you before we do, and we will not prejudice a learner’s completed work.
5. All sums are payable without set-off or deduction.

Cancellation and postponement of a closed cohort

Postponement is treated as cancellation and rebooking unless we agree otherwise in writing. One postponement to a date within 3 months, notified more than 28 days ahead, is accepted without charge.

Substitution of delegates

You may substitute a different delegate free of charge up to 7 days before the start date, provided the substitute meets the entry requirements at clause 3 and completes the initial assessment. Substitution after registration with the awarding body may not be possible, and any awarding body fee already incurred is payable.

Your obligations as an employer

1. You will give your staff the time and support to attend and to complete assessment work.
2. You will tell us of any reasonable adjustment need you are aware of, with the learner’s agreement.
3. You will not require a learner to apply what they learn in a way that breaches clause 8.
4. Where a course is delivered at your premises, you are responsible for the venue, its suitability, health and safety, and access for our staff.

What you get told about your staff

We will report to you: enrolment, attendance, completion, and the certification outcome. We will not report assessment detail, feedback, personal circumstances or reasonable adjustment information without the learner’s consent. Ask us to change that and we will decline — the answer is in our Privacy Policy and it is not negotiable.

Non-solicitation

For 12 months after the end of a contract, neither party will solicit for employment any individual engaged by the other in delivering it, except through a public advertisement not targeted at that individual. Breach gives rise to a payment of 20 per cent of the individual’s first year’s gross remuneration.

Entire agreement

This contract is the entire agreement between us on its subject matter and supersedes any prior discussion or representation, except for fraudulent misrepresentation. Your standard purchase terms do not apply, even where referenced on a purchase order, unless we have agreed to them in a signed document.

Model cancellation form

Complete and return this form only if you are a consumer and wish to withdraw from the contract.

To: Obsidian Arc Training Ltd, 14 Alum Way, Fareham, England, PO16 8RJ — [email protected] I/We hereby give notice that I/we cancel my/our contract for the supply of the following service:

• Course booked: …………………………………………..
• Booking reference: …………………………………………..
• Ordered on / received on: …………………………………………..
• Name of consumer(s): …………………………………………..
• Address of consumer(s): …………………………………………..
• Signature (only if this form is notified on paper): …………………………………………..
• Date: …………………………………………..