Appendix: Withdrawal of .gov.uk name, Our code of practice
The following is our code of practice on the withdrawal of and right to use a previously approved .gov.uk domain name
- Renewal not confirmed:
We assume that all .gov.uk domain owners will wish to renew. Therefore we restrict the effort we put into chasing an ISP for domain name renewal before using our right to terminate it. We will attempt to obtain confirmation of renewal twice over a 90 day period before withdrawal of the DNS entry.
- Charges not paid:
ISPs, upon joining the UKERNA’s Approved ISP Membership Account agree to accept the responsibility to pay their UKERNA invoices in a timely manner. When registration/modification/renewal charges are not paid within 60 days of the date of the invoice we reserve the right to suspend the DNS entry and within another 30 days withdraw the DNS entry.
Where the ISP has indicated that it is not willing to accept responsibility for the renewal payment then within 60 days we will suspend the DNS and take reasonable steps to contact the named domain owner for instructions on a ‘way forward’. If this is also unsuccessful then within another 30 days we will withdraw the DNS entry.
- Decommissioned or faulty website:
The minimum number of times and period over which we should attempt checking a domain name (a) for which we have received public complaints about its accessibility or the number of broken links, (b) that consistently appears to be decommissioned and/or (c) delivers nothing to the user, for example, a 404 page, three times over a 90 day period, then the DNS will be withdrawn.
- Not conforming to the ‘principle and practice’:
The minimum number of times and period over which we should attempt checking a domain name that is ‘not conforming with the principle and practice, eg, commercial ISP holding page, before withdrawing the DNS, twice over a 60 day period.
- Ineligible organisation
The period of time that a .gov.uk domain name may continue to be used by any organisation or project after undergoing a change of status that makes that organisation or project ineligible for a government domain name should be negotiated with the .gov.uk Naming and Approvals Committee, around 90 days as a redirect to their new domain name before the DNS is withdrawn, should be seen as an average.
Definitions:
- Suspension is taken to mean that the name will be switched off but after appropriate action or payment the domain name can be re-instated (re–delegated), usually with 24–48 hours.
- Withdrawn is taken to mean that the DNS has been removed. To have it restored the registrant has to make a new application that will be subject to the rules and charges current at the time of the new application. This point is particularly important for local authorities where the use of suffixes is now mandated.
