GOV.UK blogs

Podcast: Agile delivery - theory vs practice

In this episode, we catch up with Barry Traish, Hannah Dell'Armi and Shafiq Porter from our Delivery practice who share their thoughts and experiences.

Operation Goldjuno: joining forces to stop crime in the waste industry

Kevin Knight, Senior Environmental Crime Officer, discusses an operation carried out by the Joint Unit for Waste Crime (JUWC) and the Environment Agency to tackle catalytic converter theft and wider illegal waste site operations. Last year Operation Goldiron involving the …

Reviewing the Authorised Examiner Designated Manager (AEDM) role

In this blog post Helen Jacquest explains the changes we’re making to the AEDM role to make the role’s responsibilities clearer.

Commission for Countering Extremism hosts inaugural conference

The Commission for Countering Extremism hosted its first conference last week, bringing together academics, policy-makers, and operational and regulatory partners to discuss ‘Extremism in the UK: What does it look like and how should we respond?’ Robin Simcox, Interim Commissioner …

We’re accelerating our move towards digital applications 

From November this year, ALL portal AP1 applications are to be submitted using the Digital Registration Service.

UK supports global action to tackle plastic pollution at UN Environment Assembly

In today’s blog we are looking at media coverage of the fifth session of the United Nations Environment Assembly.

The Well-Being Sweet-Spot

Future Generations Commissioner, Sophie Howe, writes about how Wales is leading the world on delivering public value to citizens.

Finding the technologies that matter

      We, the Technology and Science Insights team in the Government Office for Science, are updating our list of priority technologies for 2022. We are on the hunt for new technologies so we can provide up to date …

Identifying CITES-listed sharks amidst a global pandemic

Warning: This blog contains images of sharks without fins or heads as part of a training exercise to identify species by their trunks. Some people may find this distressing. Since last we spoke It seems like a lifetime ago since …

World Hearing Day - 3 March. The Rose Looks Fair

To mark World Hearing Day, Ian Wallace hails the success of Strictly Come Dancing star Rose Ayling-Ellis as a trailblazer for the deaf. Every year on 3 March, World Hearing Day is celebrated. On this day, the World Federation of …

Why I’m celebrating World Book Day

On the 25th anniversary of World Book Day, Defra librarian Abbi Smith shares her passion for reading and explains how this passion has been passed to her 10-year-old son, Walt, who is already an avid reader himself.

World Book Day – Reading for pleasure from an early age benefits children throughout their education and beyond

Today (Thursday 3 March), on World Book Day, schools will be celebrating by inviting in authors and encouraging children to dress up as their favourite characters, helping them form a longstanding love of reading.

A FAIR wind sets our course for data improvement

There is a bit of a buzz about making data more FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable). Is this a path towards a data utopia where everyone gets the data they want, in the way they want, when they want …

How students can benefit from Student Space

In February 2022 University Mental Health Day co-founders, Student Minds announced that their mental health platform ‘Student Space’ would be receiving further government funding via the Office for Students (OfS) to run until the end of the academic year. Take …

DVSA’s youngest driving examiner breaks the mould in her new role

Emily Butler became DVSA’s youngest car driving examiner aged 23 when she started her role in Hartlepool last year.

Emily shares her experience of why she became an examiner, what the training was like and how she’s getting to grips with her new role.

Understanding and improving farming regulation

Some farming and land management activities are regulated to safeguard our environment and to protect the health of animals, plants and people. We do this through around 150 pieces of legislation, comprising primary and secondary legislation. All of this legislation applies to agricultural activity, and collectively constitutes what is known as the ‘regulatory baseline for agriculture’. This is a complex legislative picture and is not easy to navigate – we intend to improve and evolve this baseline in future as part of our agricultural transition outside of the European Union (EU). 

I was always a computer nerd! In conversation with Gina Gill

Gina Gill, MoJ’s Chief Digital & Information Officer was recently featured in the internal Gender Equality Newsletter. Gina talks about her journey as a woman in tech, biases she has faced along the way, and lessons for women joining the …

Reform and Modernisation Champions - Creating the Northwest Network

Join our new Modernisation and Reform Network in the North West. First meeting 16 March 2022

New inspection framework for lead providers of the early career framework and national professional qualifications

Chris Russell, our National Director for Education, discusses this new area of our work. Today, we have published our new framework and handbook for inspecting lead providers of the early career framework (ECF) and the reformed suite of national professional …

How GDS’s design recruitment process works

In this blog post, we give an overview of the design recruitment process and what to expect once you’ve applied for a job.

Podcast: Improving navigation on GOV.UK

When was the last time you noticed any changes to GOV.UK? We share how and why we’ve updated its homepage and menu bars.

Setting up an Accessibility Book Club

Interested in running an Accessibility Book club? Read about one at the Ministry of Justice Digital and Technology, with accompanying resources to help you get started.

How we created a new security training course for the Civil Service

Bob Mistry and Tony Green, from the Defra security team, share their experiences of working with partners throughout the organisation to develop a new online security training course that will be used by hundreds of thousands of civil servants across government departments in the future.

Diversity leads to better decision-making

The Government Security Function’s mission is to defend the UK government from security threats whilst protecting the public. To do this effectively, they’re driving up diversity of thought in every area of their work.  The Government Security Function is made …

Working together to avoid delays to probate applications

Stopped probate applications can take more than double the amount of administrative time to issue compared to those we can issue on our first attempt. We could increase the number of grants issued by over 50,000 each year for practitioners if we work together to reduce the number of stopped applications.  

The Farming Innovation Programme in 2022

In October, we launched the first rounds of funding in our Farming Innovation Programme. As we've been processing the applications, we've seen a promising spread of ideas across the livestock, horticulture and broadacre sub-sectors. These ideas are coming in from across the whole of England. In this post, I'll share next steps and what to look out for this year.

What you need to know about secondary school offer day

On Tuesday 1 March year 6 pupils across the country will find out which secondary school has offered them a place for September 2022.

Great new workspaces for DWP Digital

Take a look at our new test and learn workspace in Newcastle.

Unexpected notifiable disease confirmed in Somerset

Whilst the current avian influenza outbreaks make all the headlines, let us turn our attention to a disease that hardly anyone expected anymore: bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

Future Farming Podcast: Government-funded innovation

In the seventh episode of the Future Farming podcast, Tim Mordan, Defra’s Head of Farming Innovation, Productivity and Science talks to Rui Andrês, CEO of Fieldwork Robotics, about their innovative raspberry robot picker.

Living with an eating disorder

Eating Disorders Awareness Week (28 February - 6 March) helps fight misunderstandings over anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and other eating disorders. It also highlights the importance of receiving professional help early. Below, Martin Riley shares his experiences. I can’t pinpoint …

Help for teachers and families to talk to pupils about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and how to help them avoid misinformation.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is distressing and concerning, and we understand children and young people may have questions or be seeking reassurance. We know that schools are well placed to talk to pupils about the images they are seeing and …

Factsheet: Home Office action on Ukraine

This factsheet is no longer being updated. Please read Home Office visa support for Ukrainians factsheet for the latest information. Russia’s assault on Ukraine is an unprovoked, premeditated attack against a sovereign democratic state. President Putin has chosen a path …

COVID-19: Moving towards recovery for schools, colleges and universities

The COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions it has made necessary have had a significant impact on the education, health and social development of our children and young people.

Tony Juniper reappointed as Natural England Chair

Today we are looking at a media interview on Tony Juniper’s recent reappointment as Natural England chair. There is positive coverage today in the Guardian following Tony Juniper’s recent reappointment as Chair of Natural England. Tony Juniper was interviewed on …

Health and social care integration: local perspectives

"‘Joining up care for people, places and populations’ is not just the title of the Government’s Integration White Paper, but an aspiration for us all" says Paul Najsarek of Solace, the membership network for public sector and local government professionals. He believes local expertise can deliver local solutions, as he explains in his debut blog for this site...

Charities Bill: the next steps

This week the Charities Bill received Royal Assent and passed into law as the Charities Act 2022. This blog covers what happens next, and the key changes charities can expect.

Incident report: increased error rate on GOV.UK on 5 January 2022

On 5 January 2022, some GOV.UK users saw errors when accessing the site. Here’s what happened and how we responded.

Dragons' Den, Episode 8, Series 19

Handmade sip-from-the-jar apple and nut-based liqueurs and watch straps made from pineapple. These are just some of the exciting innovations seen on Dragons’ Den this week – but did the entrepreneurs’ pitches bear fruit? Read our blog to find out more!

Media factsheet: Hong Kong BN(O) Visa route

On 31 January 2021, the UK launched a bespoke immigration route for British National (Overseas) (BN(O)) status holders and their family members.  The route reflects the UK’s historic and moral commitment to those people of Hong Kong who chose to retain their ties …