Organisations and people

Organisation pages

Organisation pages give an overview of an organisation’s work, responsibilities and priorities. Organisation pages use specific headings and a set structure.

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 also have a separate website.

Request a new organisation page

Your GOV.UK lead or a managing editor needs to [contact the Government Digital Service (GDS)](link tbc) to ask for a new organisation page.

Organisation pages will only be set up for:

• brand new organisations
• organisations that have changed name (for example, when the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities changed to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government)
• organisations that are becoming part of government (what we call transitioning)

GDS will work with you and explain the different steps required depending on whether it’s a new organisation, name change or transitioning organisation.

Find and edit an organisation page

To work on an organisation page, you’ll need a Signon account with access to Whitehall Publisher.

To find an organisation page:

1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
2. Select the ‘More’ tab.
3. Select ‘Organisations’.
4. Search for the organisation and select ‘View’ next to its name.

This will take you to the organisation page to edit.

When editing an organisation page, be aware that changes will update as soon as you select ‘Save’ – there’s no draft state or peer review.

Featured content

Featured content appears under the ‘Featured’ section near the top of your organisation page. You can feature up to 6 pieces of published content. Do not feel that you have to use all the feature slots: the fewer content items you feature, the more they stand out.

Any items you feature must include an image that’s 960 pixels wide and 640 pixels high. There’s more guidance on formatting images if you need it.

You can feature some content not published using Whitehall Publisher, including:

• blog posts
• campaigns
• manuals
• services
• news stories and press releases published using Content Publisher
• job adverts published on Civil Service Jobs
• NHS content
• emergency alerts
• content not on GOV.UK, but with a .gov.uk domain

Feature content published using Whitehall Publisher

1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab. You can also select the ‘Featured Documents’ tab on the top menu bar.
2. Select the ‘Documents’ tab (or ‘Topical events’ tab for a topical event), search for the document or event you want to feature and select the ‘Feature’ button.

Feature content not published using Whitehall Publisher

1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab.
2. Select the ‘Non-GOV.UK government links’ tab.
3. Select ‘Create new link’.
4. Complete the title, summary, type and URL fields and click ‘Save’.
5. Select the ‘Feature’ button next to the external page you’d like to feature.

Change the order of featured content

1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Features’ tab.
2. Select the ‘Currently featured’ tab and then the ‘Reorder documents’ link.
3. Select and drag an item up or down in the list.
4. When you’re done setting the order, click ‘Update order’.

Unfeature content

1. On your organisation page, select on the ‘Features’ tab.
2. Select ‘Unfeature’ to remove featured content from your organisation page.

Featured links

Featured links are the links that appear at the very top of an organisation page, next to the organisation name. There are 2 options for how featured links will show on the page:

• ‘news priority’ (formerly called ‘top tasks’) - you can show up to 5 links, and the first featured content item will be larger than the others
• ‘service priority’ (formerly called ‘featured services and guidance’) - you can show up to 10 links, and all featured content is the same size

It’s generally better to choose service priority if your organisation has very little news, publishing or policy activity, but lots of users with specific, service-based needs. If that’s not the case, news priority is a better option.

Only managing editors can edit the featured links layout and add links. To edit the layout and add or change links:

1. Go to the ‘Details’ tab and select ‘Edit’.
2. Scroll to ‘Position of featured links on organisation homepage’ and select the option you want.
3. Add your featured links, with a title and URL for each link - the title will be the link text that displays. The text of the link must be as specific and active as possible, and not overlap with titles used for corporate information pages.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select ‘Save’.

Choosing links for service priority layout

When choosing links, consider:

• what users are searching for from your organisation page
• linking to high level topic pages (if you have them)
• most popular content based on page views
• user feedback comments
• frequent contact centre queries
• balancing mainstream and specialist user needs - the guidance on planning new content includes more information about the difference between mainstream and specialist content
• seasonal trends (for example applications for study visas or fishing rod licences)

See a good example of a service priority organisation page.

Choosing links for a news priority layout

Use featured links sparingly and only keep them if there’s evidence users are using them. As a guide, each featured link should be followed by at least 2% of total visitors to your organisation page (measured in total unique pageviews).

‘News priority’ featured links should point to:

• mainstream GOV.UK content and services
• information or tools on other domains
• popular publications

Do not include links to content that’s already featured elsewhere on your organisation homepage, such as:

• group pages
• lists of ministers
• contact information
• lists of all of a particular content type, such as statistics or press releases
• blogs or social media
• corporate information pages

Do not include campaign sites unless there’s evidence of significant user demand.

See a good example of a news priority organisation page.

The ‘what we do’ section and ‘About us’ page

‘What we do’ is a short summary of your organisation’s responsibilities that will appear on your organisation page.

It’s taken from the summary of the ‘About us’ page. The full ‘About us’ page will be linked to from the ‘What we do’ section when your organisation is live.

When writing the ‘About us’ page:

• lead with ‘We’ - it will be obvious who the ‘we’ is on this page
• aim for 30 words or less for the summary, and give a broad overview of your organisation’s work
• in the body, lead with a ‘responsibilities’ section with a short bullet point list of your organisation’s responsibilities
• include a section for your organisation’s priorities - it’s best if you take the main priorities from your business plan, as these are normally specific, clear and succinct
• include a ‘who we are’ section with a few lines about the number of staff you employ and where they’re based

Add a new ‘About us’ page:

1. Select the ‘Pages’ tab.
2. Select ‘Create new corporate information page’.
3. Select ‘About us’ from the ‘Type’ dropdown.
4. Add a summary and a body – the summary is the part that will show up under the ‘What we do’ section and the body will only be on the separate ‘About us’ page.
5. When you’re happy with the content, select ‘Submit for 2nd eyes’ so another editor can review the page and publish.

Edit an ‘About us’ page

1. Select the ‘About’ tab.
2. Select the ‘View’ link next to the ‘About us’ heading.
3. Select ‘Create new edition’.
4. Edit the summary to change the ‘What we do’ section or body to change the ‘About us’ page.
5. When you’ve made your edits, select ‘Submit for 2nd eyes’ so another editor can review the page and publish.

Corporate information pages

Corporate information pages include things like your:

• governance
• complaints procedure
• accessible documents policy
• energy use

Make sure it also includes your organisation chart (see for example the Cabinet Office’s chart on data.gov.uk). You can do this by adding a link to the relevant data.gov.uk page in the ‘Organisation chart url’ field on the ‘Details’ tab of your organisation page.

Your corporate information pages will automatically display on:

• your organisation page, under the ‘Corporate information’ heading
• the corporate information section of your ‘About us’ page

See how to add and edit corporate information pages.

Contact details

1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Contacts’ tab.
2. To add a contact, select the green ‘Add contact’ button. To edit or delete a contact, find it in the list of contacts and select ‘Edit’ or 'Delete.

When adding or editing a contact, select ‘Yes’ under ‘Homepage feature’ to show them on your organisation page.

You must add a Freedom of Information contact and general enquiries contact. Both of these must be shown on your organisation page.

Add other contacts (not for your organisation page) that appear frequently in your news and other documents. You’ll be able to add these to content from the list you create here.

Contact details are shown in the order you add them. You can reorder them using the ‘Reorder’ option at the top of the contacts list.

Social media accounts

1. On your organisation page, select the ‘Social media accounts’ tab.
2. To add an account, select the green ‘Create a new account’ button. To edit or delete a contact, find it in the list of contacts and select ‘Edit’ or 'Delete.

These will show under the ‘Follow us’ heading under the ‘What we do’ section of the organisation page.

‘Our ministers’ and ‘Our management’

Organisation pages automatically show people tagged to the organisation under ‘Our ministers’ and ‘Our management’ on the organisation page.

Read the guidance on adding people and role pages to find out how to add people and roles, and tag them to your organisation.

Once people are tagged, you can use the ‘People’ tab of your organisation page to reorder them.

Translations

Read the guidance about deciding whether to add a translation first.

Go to the ‘Translations’ tab. Then choose the language that you’ll be adding the translation for and select the ‘Create new translation’ button.

You need to add a translation of the:

• organisation name
• organisation acronym (if you use one)
• logo formatted name

You can then add translated versions of the other content on your organisation page. If you do not add translated versions, then the English versions will show up by default.

Feature translated content

Once you’ve added a translation, a tab next to the ‘Features’ tab will show called ‘Features [name of language]’. Add translated featured content here the way you add English featured content.

Add translations of featured links

1. Go to the ‘Translations’ tab on your organisation page.
2. Select ‘Edit’ next to the translation you want to have featured links.
3. Add or edit the featured links and select ‘Save’ when you’re done. The new links should show straight away on the live page.

Add translated contacts

1. Go to the ‘Contacts’ tab on your organisation page.
2. Select ‘Add translation’ next to the contact you want to translate.
3. Select the language you want to translate the contact into.
4. Add the translated content as usual and select ‘Save’.

Add translated social media accounts

1. Go to the ‘Social media accounts’ tab on your organisation page.
2. You’ll see a ‘[Translation] account’ option under the ‘English account’ option. Select ‘Edit’ next to it.
3. Add the URL (if there’s a different URL for the non-English version) and title in the relevant fields and select ‘Save’.

Add translated corporate information, including the ‘What we do’ section

1. Go to the ‘Pages’ tab on your organisation page.
2. Select ‘View’ next to the page you want to add a translation for.
3. Select ‘Create new edition’. If a new edition has already been created, select the ‘Go to draft’ link instead. You can then select ‘Edit draft’, or select ‘Delete draft’ if you want to start a new draft.
4. Go to the bottom of the page and select ‘No - it’s a minor edit that does not change the meaning’ (unless you’ve made any significant changes in the draft) under ‘Do users have to know the content has changed?’.
5. Select ‘Save and go to document summary’.
6. Under the ‘Translations’ heading, select ‘Add translation’.
7. Add the translated title, summary and body.
8. Select ‘Save’.
9. If you want to add any translated attachments, go back to the English version and add the attachments there. You can then copy the code and paste it into the translated version.
10. Check the translations are working by selecting ‘Preview translated pages’ under the ‘Preview’ heading.

If you’re adding a translation for a language that is written from right to left, there’s a different way to format links.

The translated version will automatically show up on the translated organisation page.

You can add a translated version of your ‘What we do’ section by following these steps and translating your ‘About us’ page. The summary of that translation will be used in your ‘What we do’ section.

To edit an existing translation:

1. Select ‘Save and go to document summary’ on your current draft.
2. Under the ‘Translations’ heading, select ‘Edit’ next to the relevant translation.
3. Make the changes and select ‘Save’.

If you want to update an attachment:

1. Go to the ‘Attachments’ tab at the top of the draft of the English version.
2. Select ‘Edit attachment’ under the relevant attachment.

Add translated people pages

Follow the guidance on adding translations to people pages. Once you’ve added a translated version, it will show up on the translated organisation page automatically.

Add or change the accessible formats request email

You need to include an email address so the public can order attachments in alternative formats.

1. On your organisation page, go to the ‘Details’ tab and select ‘Edit’.
2. Under the heading ‘Accessible formats request email’, add the email address you want to use.
3. Select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

Add or edit the default news image

You need to include a default image for your organisation that will appear if an editor publishes a news story without an image.

1. On your organisation page, go to the ‘Details’ tab and select ‘Edit’.
2. Under the heading ‘Default news image’, select the ‘Choose file’ button and upload the image from the folder it’s saved in.
3. Select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

If there’s already an image there, it’ll replace it with your new image after you select save.

Add or update the jobs information

You can let users know how to apply for jobs at your organisation by adding a link in the ‘Recruitment URL’ section. For example, you can link to the Civil Service Jobs website.

The link will appear as ‘Jobs’ under the ‘Corporate information’ section of your organisation page.

1. On your organisation page, go to the ‘Details’ tab and select ‘Edit’.
2. Under the heading ‘Recruitment URL’, add the link you want to use.
3. Select ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page.

Closing an organisation page

Organisations should never be deleted from GOV.UK. Instead, the status of an organisation can be changed to ‘closed’.

When closed, organisations are not listed on the organisations index and disappear from the parent or sponsor department’s organisation page. But they continue to have a profile page findable at the same URL, with a statement indicating they’re closed.

Closed organisation profiles will remain findable by external search engines and the internal site search, and remain listed as a filter option, for example when filtering by organisation on the list of all government publications.

How to close an organisation

1. Go to the ‘Details’ tab and select ‘Edit’.
2. Scroll to ‘Status on GOV.UK’ and change it from ‘Currently live’ to ‘Closed’.
3. Select the appropriate reason for closure.
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page and select ‘Save’.

If your organisation is being taken over by another organisation, enter the name of the organisation taking over from (superseding) your organisation.

The different options for describing ‘closed’ organisations each generate slightly different wording for users.

Reason for closure	Use when	Automated wording	Example
No longer exists	Organisation is closed and its functions have not been taken over by anyone else.	“[name of organisation] closed down in [month/year]”. Or, if the date is not known: “[name of organisation] has closed down”.	Agricultural Wages Committee
Replaced	Organisation is closed and has been replaced.	“[name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] in [month/year]”. Or, if the date is not known: “[name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation]”.	Driving Standards Agency
Split	Organisation is split into parts.	“[name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] and [name of organisation] in [month/year]”. Or, if the date is not known: “[name of organisation] was replaced by [name of organisation] and [name of organisation]”.	Department for Education and Skills
Merged with other organisation	Organisation is merged into / with another organisation.	“[name of organisation] became part of [name of organisation] in [month/year]”. Or, if the date is not known: “[name of organisation] is now part of [name of organisation]”.	Office for Artificial Intelligence
Change of name	Organisation changes its name.	“[name of organisation] is now called [name of new organisation]”.	Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
No longer part of central government	Organisation is still operational, but no longer part of central government.	“[name of organisation] is now independent of the UK government”. [Note: link to the organisation’s website in the text summary field].	Design Council
Devolved to regional government	Organisation is devolved to regional government.	“[name of organisation] is now run by the [name of new organisation]” (Scottish Government / Welsh Government / Northern Ireland Executive are modelled in the system). [Note: link to the organisation’s website in the text summary field].	Western Health and Social Services Board

Re-tagging content if the organisation is merging, changing its name or being replaced

All documents tagged to the organisation will stay tagged after it closes, so the context of who published it is retained.

You might need to re-tag some documents so they’re tagged to both the closing and new organisation.

What you should re-tag

Only re-tag a document to the new organisation if the content is still current - for example, guidance or policy should still be followed. Keep the document tagged to the closing organisation too.

To get a list of your content to decide what needs re-tagging, go to the ‘Documents’ section of Whitehall Publisher. Filter the documents by your organisation name and select ‘Export as CSV’.

GDS recommend re-tagging these content types to the new organisation:

• detailed guides
• guidance publications
• forms
• research and analysis
• fatality notices
• independent reports
• correspondence - unless directly associated with a previous minister
• maps
• decisions
• case studies
• international treaties

GDS will re-tag the mainstream content, manuals and specialist finders that need tagging to the new organisation.

You should only re-tag the following content types to the new organisation if the content will be updated by the new organisation:

• national statistics
• statistical releases
• transparency data
• open consultations

These content types should not be re-tagged to the new organisation:

• news stories
• press releases
• annual reports
• transparency data (that will not be updated by the new organisation)
• statistics
• closed consultations
• documents in history mode

There may be exceptions to the list of content types that should not be re-tagged - for example:

• things that are heavily used, like recent news articles
• an announcement of something that has not yet happened
• content that is in the wrong content type, such as things that have [incorrectly gone into history mode](link tbc)

[Contact GDS for help](link tbc) if:

• you do not know what to re-tag to the new organisation
• there are too many documents to re-tag manually - GDS can bulk re-tag
• you need to retag a manual