Editorial policy

This policy binds every story on Construction Skills Today and every title in the TC Media Group network. It is written for readers, for the organisations we write about, and for the software that drafts our stories.

What we publish

• Contract awards, framework appointments, project starts, milestones and completions.
• Appointments, promotions and awards.
• Company results and investment announced by the company itself.
• Government, regulator and trade-body announcements, guidance, funding and statistics.
• Product launches and certifications where the story is the innovation, not a sales pitch.
• Charity, community, apprenticeship, training and wellbeing stories, always free of charge.

What we never publish

• Allegations, investigations, prosecutions, enforcement action or fines.
• Insolvencies, administrations or speculation about any company's finances.
• Accidents, injuries or fatalities.
• Disputes, litigation, strikes or redundancies.
• Anything that names an individual in a negative context.
• Claims we cannot trace to a named source.

Other publications cover those subjects well. We have chosen to be the place the industry reads for what is going right.

How stories are checked

1. Source first. Every story begins with an official or first-party announcement.
2. Research, from primary sources only. We look for further first-hand material to put the news in context: the organisation's own earlier announcements and project pages, its client's or partner's own statement, official documents and data, and trade-body statements. We do not use other news outlets' reporting, Wikipedia, forums or social media as a source of fact.
3. Every fact traced to a page. Our systems fetch each source page themselves. A fact is kept only if the passage that supports it can be found, word for word, on the page it is attributed to. Anything that cannot be traced is discarded before writing.
4. Written from verified facts. The article may contain only those verified facts, figures, names and quotes. Quotes are verbatim, attributed, and must appear on a source page. Every source used is listed and linked at the end of the article.
5. Independent check. A separate automated pass compares every claim, figure, name, date and quote against the source pages themselves. Any mismatch holds the story for a human editor, as does a story that rests on a single source.
6. Word filters. Stories touching excluded subjects are stopped automatically whatever their tone.
7. Human oversight. The editor reviews held stories daily, spot-checks published ones, and is accountable for everything on the site.

AI assistance

Our stories are drafted with AI assistance under these rules. We disclose this on every article. AI is used to assess, research, draft and check each story; it is not allowed to invent quotes or to include anything that cannot be traced to a source page we have captured. The publisher is accountable for every word.

Corrections and right of reply

If we have got something wrong, tell us. We correct errors promptly and note the change on the page. Any organisation we write about may ask for a statement to be added or for a story to be removed; we respond within two working days.

Advertising

Paid content is labelled Advertisement Feature in line with the CAP Code (rule 2.4), is kept separate from news, and uses sponsored link attributes. Advertisers cannot buy news coverage or influence what we write. See advertise.