Social media use

The Office of the Public Guardian's (OPG) social media community guidelines.

Using our social media channels

The Office of The Public Guardian (OPG) uses social media to explain and share information relating to lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) and the work of OPG. We also use our channels to share details about what it’s like to work at OPG and understand customer issues.

We don’t use our channels as a customer service enquiry route, but we do moderate all our channels to encourage constructive debate, manage abusive comments and remove misinformation shared on posts. When posting comments, please observe our community guidelines set out below.

Use of our social media accounts is bound by the Civil Service Code.

For further information please see advice from each of the social media channels: X (formerly know as Twitter), Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

Social media community guidelines

These guidelines are to keep our social channels relevant and safe for customers and staff. If these are not followed, we will take appropriate action to hide, delete, report or block comments, interactions and users.

Users must not post comments on OPG channels that are:

  • abusive or obscene
  • contain graphic, sensitive or offensive imagery
  • are deceptive or misleading
  • in violation of any intellectual property rights
  • in violation of any law or regulation
  • adverts for commercial products or services
  • spam (persistent negative and/or abusive messages in which the aim is to provoke a response or comments that are off-topic)

We will take action on comments that are libellous or defamatory such as an accusation made against a named person, for example at a member of staff.

We may remove, in whole or in part, posts which we feel are inappropriate. This includes discussing personal cases and individuals in comments.

For example, reference to individuals’ names, date of birth or location or specific details regarding an LPA that could make an individual identifiable.

We use filters to automatically hide obscenities and will use our own discretion to hide or delete comments that go against our community guidelines. Your comment may still be visible to you but won’t be visible to others. On rare occasions, we may block users from the page if they continue to break the community guidelines.

Report a comment

If you see something that doesn’t seem right, or that makes you feel uncomfortable, make us aware via direct message on the channel.

We’re online

Our Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube channels are moderated Monday to Friday, 8am – 4pm.

Responding to comments and messages

Our social media accounts are not used as a customer service channel, and we won’t be able to comment on specific or personal cases.

Media enquiries

All media queries should be directed to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) press office.

Last reviewed: August 2024

Contents