GOV.UK blogs

The value of feedback: Part Two - top tips on giving and getting feedback

In the second part of her blog on feedback Lead Content Designer Leyla Kee-McParlin shares some top tips for giving and receiving feedback, and the things you can do if you want to explore this topic further.

Get vaccinated and boost your winter protection

This winter, both COVID-19 and flu may circulate at high levels, potentially at the same time.

Ahead of what could be a difficult season, millions of people are being offered vaccination to help protect them over the coming months.

Teach-in Sessions on Implementing the Concordat to Support Research Integrity

Teach-in Sessions on Implementing the Concordat to Support Research Integrity within Government The Government Office for Science is presenting two virtual (Microsoft Teams) cross-government teach-ins on the “Guidance to Implement the Research Integrity Concordat within Government”. The sessions will cover …

Autumn vaccinations and the role of social work

Lockdowns may have ended but out duty of care as social workers goes on - and that includes encouraging colleagues and those we serve to make sure they remain fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and a potentially resurgent flu virus.

Defra response to reported recent increase in fatal dog attacks

There has been front page coverage in the Mirror today on the increasing number of dog attacks reported this year. These attacks are deeply distressing and our sympathy goes out to the families of those who have died as a …

Celebrating customer service at the Insolvency Service

During National Customer Service Week, the Insolvency Service’s Customer Services Operational Delivery Lead, Ashleigh Finnigan shared some thoughts about what excellent customer services means to the Insolvency Service.

The night sky in October

September brought that first icy night under the stars since March, and it’s always a mixed experience! 

Making better policies and services

Jeffrey Allen from the Ministry of Justice shares his advice on developing policies and services that deliver long-term positive change.

Darlington Economic Campus: join a cross-government community

DDaT colleagues share their experiences living and working in Darlington

Making it easy to create and publish digital forms on GOV.UK

The Insolvency Service has published the first form made with GOV.UK Forms, our new digital form-building platform.

International Geodiversity Day – a world first

By Jonathan Larwood, Principal Adviser – Geodiversity, Natural England The world’s first International Geodiversity Day will be celebrated on the 6th October.  This annual event was established by UNESCO in November 2021 following a proposal from 109 international and national …

Black History Month 2022

Entering its 35th year of celebration, Black History Month 2022 UK runs throughout the month of October. This year’s theme, Time for Change: Action Not Words, focuses on the double-burden black people carry: experiencing racism and discrimination and then being …

Why and how we updated the GOV.UK campaign templates

There’s a new and improved campaign template for communicators across government to use on GOV.UK. Read what’s changed and how we’ve tested it.

A Year of Building with MoJ Forms

MoJ Forms is quickly becoming the go-to approach for busy teams needing a fast, affordable and secure way to collect information from users. A New Approach The MoJ Forms platform enables teams to create and publish their own digital forms. …

Lincolnshire farmer tells other farmers not to worry about Environment Agency check

Emma Billings provides an insight into the Environment Agency farm inspections taking place in Lincolnshire

Blandford Library – Connecting a community

Blandford Library in Dorset is a hub for the whole community, and much more than simply a place to borrow books.

Getting tested for an STI: Your guide to how it works

Read this guide to getting an STI test, including how to order and use STI self sampling kits.

Learning on-the-job has proven to be a great career move for neurodivergent apprentice Hannah

PR and Communications apprentice, Hannah Mead joined HMRC at the beginning of 2022 in the Sustainability team. Here she shares her experiences of learning on-the-job and her top tips for navigating ADHD in the workplace. Building on my existing skills …

How the pandemic altered our ways of working and advanced our learning

In Libraries Week Defra library officer Cathy O’Sullivan shares some reflections on her learnings from the pandemic and how it’s changed the way in which the Defra library service works.

SEO Research and Development (R&D) Pipeline Manager

SEO Research and Development (R&D) Pipeline Manager at the Ministry of Defence. This is a great opportunity for officials with a passion for science and engineering to apply their skills towards improving an entire R&D ecosystem. You will work as …

Water companies face new civil penalties up to £250million

There has been widespread media coverage of the Environment Secretary’s announcement that he will bring forward proposals to raise the civil penalty for water companies who pollute the environment by 1,000-fold - from £250,000 to up to £250 million.

STIs: Get tested, get treated

Here we summarise the key findings from our report Sexually transmitted infections and screening for chlamydia in England, 2021, and discuss we need to know to understand the risks, along with some simple steps we can take to stay in good sexual health.

How we will reduce crime by supporting people to get jobs after prison through apprenticeships

Apprenticeships help people get the skills that employers want and need, and we know employment is one of the best tools in reducing reoffending.   Prisoners across England who are eligible for release on temporary licence and nearing the end of …

Accessibility matters to us all at the IPO 

Following National Inclusion Week (26 Sep – 2 Oct) it’s now National Dyslexia Week and we’re reflecting on our accessibility progress here at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO). As I browsed through the archives, I came across a blog written …

Helping to put friendship first

Civil servant Bartholomew Oram reflects on volunteering with the Civil Service Retirement Fellowship (CSRF), a charity dedicated to supporting former civil servants and their dependants. Loneliness can affect every one of us at some point in our life. A study …

Leadership in Tomorrow's World Conference 2022

Leadership in Tomorrow’s World: Foundation Future Leaders Conference 2022 Tuesday 1st November 2022; 9:00am – 4:00pm Glaziers Hall, 9 Montague Close, London SE1 9DD or Online via Zoom The major challenges confronting society do not have simple resolutions. They are …

Introducing You To...

Hi, I’m Alice and I’m on a nine week internship with RPA as part of the Fast Stream Summer Diversity Internship Programme (SDIP). The SDIP is targeted at getting university students and graduates from diverse backgrounds into a career in …

How we are using machine learning to detect GOV.UK feedback spam

The GOV.UK feedback form was receiving a lot of spam requests. We developed a machine learning model to detect spam responses — here is how we created it.

Track our progress: Trade Remedies Authority case milestones – Oct 2022

Subscribe below to receive the latest update on our interactive case tracker, which shows the progress of each of our cases as they go through the investigation lifecycle. This month’s tracker shows progress on our cases during September and the …

Updated UK NSC evidence review guidance and processes

The UK NSC has published a new collection of documents on GOV.UK that describe its processes and principles for implementing the chief medical officers’ recommendations for the committee’s expanded remit.

Being East & South East Asian in government project delivery: “It's important for project teams to be as diverse as possible”

Eileen Wong is a Senior Business Change Manager at HMRC and has spent over 19 years in the Civil Service, the majority of which has been in tax compliance roles but decided a change of career and profession was needed. She is also a co-chair of the Civil Service Race Forum’s East & South East Asian Working Group (CSRF ESEA WG). This group was set up in 2021 due to the rise of anti-Asian hate following Covid and aims to create safe spaces for colleagues to talk about these issues as well as forge a community of ESEA civil servants and allies in government.

Keeping communities and soldiers safe in Kenya

Out in Kenya DIO staff are responsible for the physical safety of the training areas, keeping both the public and the military safe. The team work on a variety of tasks together with the British Army, the Kenyan Defence Forces …

G6 Head of Climate Science Research and Domestic Policy Support

G6 Head of Climate Science Research and Domestic Policy Support (BEIS) I am looking for an enthusiastic scientist to work as a G6 in the friendly and supportive team Climate Science Team on key science issues to underpin the Government’s …

Helping tackle violence against women and girls

Tackling violence against women and girls and addressing the urgent need to improve criminal justice outcomes in cases of Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) are two Home Office and law enforcement priorities. The Accelerated Capability Environment (ACE) has been …

Beavers are now legally protected in England – the licensing regime explained

By Stephanie Bird-Halton - Director of National Delivery Protection of beavers and why it’s important On 1 October 2022 the legislation changed to protect wild-living beavers in England. Beavers are now listed in Schedule 2 of the Conservation of Habitats …

The value of feedback: Part One - why you need to give and get it

In the first instalment of a two-part blog Lead Content Designer Leyla Kee-McParlin explains how feedback is essential to self-development, and explores how you can give and receive feedback in the most productive and sensitive ways.

How to boost your grant-making skills

Boost your skills with GGMF training to help you deliver your objectives in the second half of the financial year

What we mean when we talk about ‘mission-led innovation’

From its launch in 2017, ACE has described what it does as ‘mission-led innovation’. In this blog we’ll explore what we mean by ‘mission-led’ and how it informs the way we work.

Defra response to new research on crustacean mortality incident

There has been extensive coverage across national and regional media around the high number of crab and lobster deaths that occurred in the North East last year, following the publication of a new study. It has yet to be peer …

Paludiculture – the future of farming on peat soils?

On 27 August 2022, the Government announced a new £5m fund to promote the use of peatlands for sustainable farming [1] – the Paludiculture Exploration Fund (PEF), which seeks to unlock barriers to making commercial paludiculture a reality. In this …