Request a thing
If you’re the GOV.UK lead, a super organisation admin or an organisation admin in your organisation, you can submit a request using the create new user or request training form to:
For Whitehall Publisher, new publishers must complete the required Writing and Publishing on GOV.UK training before they can have an account and access to Whitehall Publisher.
If you’re the GOV.UK lead, a super organisation admin or an organisation admin in your organisation, you can submit a request to:
You can also remove a user.
What training you can get depends on if you’re a new or existing publisher.
If you’re a GOV.UK lead, a super organisation admin or an organisation admin in your organisation, you can request training for new publishers to:
Request an account and training using the create new user or request training form.
If you’re a GOV.UK lead, a super organisation admin or an organisation admin in your organisation, you can request refresher training for a publisher who uses Whitehall Publisher.
Request refresher training for an existing publisher using the create new user or request training form.
There are different ways to request a change to GOV.UK content depending on whether the content is ‘mainstream’ or ‘Whitehall’.
It’s likely to be Whitehall content if:
To request a change to Whitehall content, talk to your organisation’s GOV.UK publishing team.
If it does not have ‘government’ or ‘publication’ in the URL, it’s ‘mainstream’ and is managed by the content design team at GDS. For example: www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
To request a change to mainstream content, use the content requests form. You need a Signon account to access the form. If you need one, ask your department’s GOV.UK lead.
The GOV.UK content team can work on your request faster if you include:
Explain as much as you can in the request itself. Write your request clearly and in plain English. Avoid acronyms, jargon and legal language.
It’s fine to suggest wording if it helps to explain what’s changed. However, the GOV.UK content team cannot put your copy straight onto GOV.UK, even if it’s ‘signed off’. They’re responsible for presenting information in a way that users will understand.
What happens next
You’ll get a confirmation email with a Zendesk ticket number.
If you need to update the request, follow the link in the confirmation email.
Read about the steps involved in getting something published.
How your request is prioritised
Small changes will usually be made the same day if they do not need a fact check. These are things like:
If the same update needs to be made to the Welsh version, this will be done at the same time.
All other requests will be sent to the relevant team that deals with requests from your department and prioritised against their other tickets according to:
You can ask for content advice from the GDS content team. This could be about:
It may be a quick question about content you’re working on or a request for a formal response you can share with colleagues in your organisation. Whatever the nature of your request, you need to clearly explain:
This will help us prioritise the work and understand how much detail to give in our response.
Request content advice using the GOV.UK support form.
If your department has built a new service, it may need a service assessment. Read the Service Manual to find out if it needs an assessment.
If the service is having an assessment, you’ll need to get its content reviewed.
GDS can review the content if the service:
GDS can also sometimes do reviews at the live assessment stage if the content has changed a lot since the beta assessment.
If GDS cannot do the review, get someone in your department to do it instead.
Send in the request at least 4 weeks before the date of the service assessment.
Use the content requests form and select ‘service review’ as the reason for the request.
Include the following information:
You should also:
You can request a short URL if you’re the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation.
Submit a request for a short URL at least 2 weeks before you need it. GDS might not be able to meet your deadline if we do not get the full 2 weeks’ notice.
Submit a new feature request using the GOV.UK support form.
You’ll need to tell us:
Short URLs can link to:
GDS will work with you to decide on a short URL. You can make suggestions - they should meet the URL standards for GOV.UK. All GOV.UK URLs must meet these standards.
There are 3 main reasons you might need a short URL.
Guidance and policy redirects
You might need a short or ‘friendly’ URL to share or promote government guidance offline, for example in letters or on posters.
Short URLs which redirect to Whitehall content should include the organisation name within the URL structure, for example www.gov.uk/dwp/benefits-accessibility.
Multiple departments might all want to use a generic short URL such as www.gov.uk/information-charter. Adding the organisation acronym helps to differentiate the short URLs, for example www.gov.uk/hmrc/information-charter.
If the guidance or policy is being promoted by more than one organisation and has a significant audience, talk to GDS about getting a top-level redirect without an organisation acronym.
Campaigns
Campaign sites are used to promote particular topics or schemes. They are usually heavily publicised over TV, radio, social media and in print. If you do not have a campaign site, you might promote a guidance page or news story on GOV.UK in the same way.
It helps to have a memorable short URL for campaigns.
If the short URL is being read aloud, you should avoid using dashes as this can be harder to understand. If the short URL is only being used in written form, you should include dashes to help with readability. GDS can create versions of the short URL with and without dashes.
Example of a campaign page and short URL: www.gov.uk/accessibility-regulations
Organisation or agency name
Each government department, agency or arm’s length body on GOV.UK can have a single short URL to use when promoting itself. Read the URL standards on how organisation short URLs should be formatted.
If your organisation does not have one yet, ask your GOV.UK lead or a managing editor to request one using the GOV.UK support form.
If you want to see how many users visit the page from a short URL, make sure you add ‘UTM parameters’ to your request.
UTM parameters have 3 main parts:
The source is where users are coming from. This is the platform you’ll be using to share the short URL, for example “letter, radio, facebook, print” or you can use the name of your department, for example “forestry-commission”.
The medium is the type of channel you’re using for a redirect or campaign. If you’re not sure what you use, use the default “shorturl”.
The campaign is the name of the promotional activity the short URL is being used for, for example “tax-credits-2022”.
For example:
gov.uk/benefits-credits/tax-credits?utm_source=letter&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=tax-credits-2022
GDS will add them to the end of the destination page URL that a short URL links to.
If you’re not sure how to add parameters, include this in your request and GDS can help.
What happens next
Someone from GDS will get in touch with you within 2 days to discuss your request.
When your short URL goes live
GDS will create the short URL once the page it is pointing to goes live. Let us know if there is a strict deadline on when the page and short URL must go live.
Because short URLs can only point to live content, please do not publicise the short URLs until both the content and the short URL are live. If you do it before they’re live, you’ll send your users to a ‘This page cannot be found’ error page.
GDS may pre-approve a short URL if you can share a draft of the page before it goes live.
If there’s no topic that describes what your content is about, you can suggest a new one.
You’ll need to include:
You can also suggest changes to a topic, including:
The decision to create a new blog is largely down to the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation. If approved, GDS will provide the WordPress platform.
You must get approval from GDS before creating a new group on GOV.UK. Groups include policy advisory groups and other types of groups including units, teams and committees.
Group pages should only be set up where there is:
Group pages should not be used as a way of setting out:
Most groups will not need a group page, because people should not need to understand the structure of government in order to interact with it. Usually a reference to the group elsewhere on GOV.UK, for example in a document collection, will be sufficient.
Only a GOV.UK lead or managing editor in your organisation can request a new group using the GOV.UK support form.
Policy advisory groups are panels of people who advise on policy development, typically made up of a mix of external experts and civil servants - like the Advisory Group on Hepatitis.
The user need for a policy advisory group page is transparency. The public should be able to see who is advising on and influencing government policy.
Other groups include units, teams, committees etc within, set up or sponsored by a government organisation, and who carry out specific areas of work - like the Farming Advice Service.
You must get approval from GDS before a new organisation page can be created.
Organisations include departments, agencies and public bodies. Every government department, agency and arms-length body must have an organisation page on GOV.UK, even if they have a separate website.
Organisation pages should only be set up for:
Only a GOV.UK lead or managing editor in your organisation can request a new organisation using the GOV.UK support form.
There is separate guidance for how to create, edit and add content to your organisation page.
If the organisation has closed and has not changed name, the organisation status will be updated to reflect this. Here’s an example of an organisation that has closed.
Organisation pages are never deleted.
Read more about closing an organisation on GOV.UK in the organisation pages guidance.
You must contact GDS if your organisation changes its name.
If the organisation has changed name, a new organisation page is created and linked to from the old page. The old page status will be updated so it’s clear the name has changed and it links to the new org page.
Here’s an example of an organisation that has changed name.
Organisation pages are never deleted.
If you’re requesting a new organisation page, include in your request:
Types of organisation include:
After you’ve submitted your request, it’ll be reviewed by GOV.UK content and policy teams. If your request is approved, GDS will create a new organisation page with the ‘coming soon’ status to allow you to create, edit and add content to your organisation page before it goes live.
If you’re the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation, you can ask for a sub-organisation to be created. Contact GDS using the GOV.UK support form.
Sub-organisations are large units within organisations which, while they formally exist under the governance of their parent organisation:
For example Border Force.
To qualify as a sub-organisation, a unit should:
We also expect sub-organisations to have:
Request a new sub-organisation using the GOV.UK support form.
A document may be a manual if it has a specialist audience who are familiar with the topic and:
Any request for a new manual must show:
Find out more about the manuals content type.
You must be the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation to request permission to create a manual using the GOV.UK support form.
In principle, avoid creating brand new campaign destinations.
GDS approval is needed for all new websites and public-facing domains set up by central government.
GOV.UK offers government organisations a range of options to support campaigns:
Read our guidance on campaigns on GOV.UK to find out more about exemptions and campaign sites.
Talk to GDS as early as possible about what you want to do. The GOV.UK Lead or your Digital Leader should submit a campaign request form.
Before asking for a campaign site you should think about:
Some campaigns produce materials such as leaflets, posters and toolkits for users to download and print. If you have a lot of items, you can publish a list of them using collection pages, as the County lines campaign has done.
Specialist finders help users find and navigate large collections of documents through a search tool and filters.
They’re published using Specialist Publisher. This is a separate tool to Whitehall Publisher.
Find out more about the specialist finder content type.
If you’re the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation, use the GOV.UK support form to ask for a new specialist finder.
After you’ve submitted the form, you’ll be asked more questions to determine whether a specialist finder is suitable for your content.
If a specialist finder is suitable, you’ll then be asked to complete an online form. You’ll need to send over details like the finder’s:
After that, your request will be passed to developers. They’ll contact you to make sure they can do everything you’ve asked for.
New specialist finders can usually be created within 3 months. It can take up to 6 months during busy periods. Any urgent deadlines you have will be taken into account.
If no one in your organisation has access to Specialist Publisher already, you’ll be given it by developers when your new specialist finder is ready.
You can ask for changes if both:
If you can ask for changes, go to Specialist Publisher and choose the specialist finder you want to change. Select ‘Finder setup’.
You can then select ‘Request changes’ next to either ‘Finder details’ or ‘Filters and options’. Make any edits you want and then select ‘Submit changes’.
Your request will be passed to developers at GDS.
It will usually take developers up to 1 month to make the changes. You can ask for them to be made on a specific day in the request form.
If you expect multiple changes over a period of time, it’ll be easier if you group these together in your request.
If you need access to Specialist Publisher, ask one of your organisation admins. If they cannot give you access themselves, they can submit an account change request.
You should read the description of Topical event pages before making a request.
If you request one, you’ll need to demonstrate that your event:
Only the GOV.UK lead or a managing editor in your organisation can request a topical event page. Use the GOV.UK support form if you’d like to set one up so we can decide if it’s the right thing for your content.
Your analytics single point of contact must request access to Google Analytics for you.
GDS will only give analytics access to people with a government email account.
You’ll need to create a Google account with your work email address. You cannot use an existing personal Google account, or add your work email to it as a backup address.
If you do not have a Google Analytics account, you must request reports from someone with Google Analytics access within your own organisation. Ask your GOV.UK lead if you do not know who has access.
If you need more help, you can make a request through the support form. If you do not have access to the support form, you should ask your GOV.UK lead.
If you’re the GOV.UK lead for your organisation, you can request downtime messages for services we link to from GOV.UK.
Most downtime messages will take this format:
“This service will be unavailable from [date and time] to [date and time].”
If the service is down and you do not know when it will be up again, we can use one of the following:
“This service is currently unavailable.” “This service will be temporarily unavailable from [date and time].”
You should also add a downtime message to the service itself if possible.
Tell us 5 working days in advance of the downtime. Give us as much time as possible if more than one service is affected. We’ll always try to give users at least a day’s notice of downtime.
Create a content request using the content requests form (or ask your GOV.UK lead to if you’re not one) and tell us:
We generally do not add downtime messages if:
If a GOV.UK application stops working or you get an error, you should report it as a technical fault.
You should also:
Give as much context as possible when reporting faults or errors.
Product requests are changes to the look or functionality of a GOV.UK publishing application or to the way the site looks or works.
We cannot always make changes because product teams need to make sure the change:
Most product changes will need evidence to support them or may need user research, so we cannot always make the change right away or tell you when it can be made.
When raising a product request you should include:
You can request product changes through the support form.
Product changes that cannot be made are:
GOV.UK content leads at GDS analyse whether there’s a user need for the translation, taking into account how many people are looking at similar existing Welsh-language content on the site. If you’re not sure whether there’s a user need, speak to your GOV.UK content lead or ask via the support form.
Your request is more likely to be prioritised if:
Read the policy about Welsh language on GOV.UK.
How you do this depends on if you want to update an existing translation or publish a new one.
If you cannot provide a translation of mainstream content, GDS can arrange one from an accredited member of the Welsh Association of Translators and Interpreters.
Update existing Welsh mainstream content on GOV.UK
To request a featured slot on the GOV.UK homepage, use the content requests form. You need a Signon account to access the form. If you need one, ask your department’s GOV.UK lead.
Featured slots are planned and updated regularly by the GOV.UK team to ensure they are timely, topical and relevant to user needs. All requests are reviewed by the director of GOV.UK.
For a request to be considered, the content must:
Send the request at least 4 working days before you want the featured slot to go live.
When you make your request, you need to include:
- a clear and specific title - ideally 25 characters or less
- a one sentence description - ideally 75 characters or less
- the link to the content - make sure the content is up to date and follows the GOV.UK style guide
- the date you want the link to go live (and removed if appropriate)
We may remove your homepage feature without warning in the event of a major incident.
The ‘Popular on GOV.UK’ section is based on user data and is regularly updated by the GOV.UK team. It is not possible to request a change to this section.
