Organisations and people

People and role pages

People and role pages are used to create profiles for those such as:

• ministers
• organisations’ senior officials and management
• public leadership roles, like ambassadors or the Chief Medical Officer

Links to these pages appear:

• on the GOV.UK ministers page, for ministers and whips
• on the relevant organisation pages, under the ‘Our ministers’ and ‘Our management’ sections

People and their roles are covered by 2 separate sections of Whitehall Publisher. You need the person first, then you can assign a role to them by editing the role.

To work on people or role pages, you’ll need a [Signon account with access to Whitehall Publisher](link tbc).

When to add and update people and role pages

You can add or update some people and role pages yourself. For others, the Government Digital Service (GDS) will make the changes.

Reshuffles and changes to ministerial appointments

If there are multiple changes to ministerial appointments (for example, during a government reshuffle), GDS may add and edit the relevant people and role pages.

GDS will contact GOV.UK leads in ministerial departments to let them know what’s happening and confirm responsibilities. GDS will then contact the affected departments to tell them when they can take over responsibility for the updated pages.

If it’s a change to only one or two ministerial appointments, [contact GDS](link tbc) to check if you can create and assign the new people and role pages yourself.

If you can make the changes yourself, ask the minister’s private office and the Number 10 digital communications team for the details you can use.

Other changes to existing ministerial pages

With approval from a minister’s private office, you can update the:

• minister’s photo
• minister’s name and titles - if the minister is a peer, do not include their first name
• ‘Biography’ section of their people page
• ‘Responsibilities’ section of their role page - these changes should also be approved by Number 10

If it’s a new junior ministerial role with a generic name like ‘Minister of State’ or ‘Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State’, you can also change the role name. You must use the following role title structure:

• Minister of State (Minister for X)
• Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Minister for X)

If you want to make other changes, [contact GDS](link tbc) first to get approval.

Add or edit a person page

If you’re adding a new minister, [contact GDS](link tbc) first to get approval.

1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
2. Select the ‘More’ tab.
3. Select ‘People’.
4. Check that there’s not already a page for the person using the search bar.
5. If there’s no existing page, select ‘Create new person’. If there is, select ‘View’ next to their name and then ‘Edit’ in the ‘Details’ tab.
6. Add or edit the title, forename, surname, any ‘post-nominal’ letters such as ‘MBE’, and a biography.
7. Upload an image (for new pages). It must be 960 × 640 px and minimum 75 dpi. Photos on a white background need a light tint overlay. The image will only display on their page when an active role is assigned to them.
8. Select ‘Save’.

Writing biography content

Keep it short. One or 2 short paragraphs (one or 2 sentences each) or a single lead sentence with 5 bullets or fewer will do. If it’s a long career, just provide the highlights.

For ministerial biographies:

• lead with: ‘[name] was appointed [title] in [date]. [He/she] was elected [name of party] MP for [constituency] on [date of election when the minister first became an MP].’
• use their full name in the first mention (without titles or letters, this will display automatically in the heading at the top), then their first name only from then on
• a Lord or Baroness will always use their title and surname, for example Baroness Warsi
• if describing their education, use ‘studied’ rather than ‘read’ for the subject
• describe their political career in chronological order, and use bullet points if it’s a long list
• if they do not have career information outside of politics, just use their political career

For management biographies, use a maximum of 3 sentences to explain what the manager is doing and 5 bullets on career highlights.

For all biographies, do not include information about their personal life, for example marital status, children or hobbies. Do not use headings or subheadings.

Add or edit a role page

If you’re adding or editing a ministerial role page, [contact GDS](link tbc) first to get approval.

Add a new role page

To add a new role page:

1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
2. Select the ‘More’ tab.
3. Select ‘Roles’.
4. Select ‘Create new role’.
5. Add a ‘Role title’, ‘Role type’, ‘Organisation’ and any other fields if relevant.
6. Write a description of the role’s responsibilities. This will appear alongside the person with this role so do not repeat content from the person page.
7. Select ‘Save’.

Edit an existing role

If the name of a role changes, create a new role rather than edit the existing one. Assign the person to the new role, and untag the old role from your organisation.

If a person is staying in their role but their responsibilities change, you can update the responsibilities section of the existing role. Go to the ‘Roles’ page, search for the role title and select ‘Edit’.

Writing role responsibilities

Give a brief description of the role, with no more than 5 bullet points.

Do not use headings or subheadings.

Be specific when listing responsibilities. For example, do not use:

The minister is responsible for:

• drugs
• alcohol

Instead, use:

The minister is responsible for:

• reducing drug misuse
• reducing harmful drinking

Interim roles

If a role is being temporarily filled (for example, to cover someone on maternity or paternity leave) you must create a new role for an interim position.

This should have the same name as the original role but with ‘interim’ at the beginning, for example, interim chief executive officer.

Do not change anything about the original role or assign it to anyone until it’s been permanently filled. When it has, you can also remove the person from the interim role.

If it’s an interim ministerial role, [contact GDS](link tbc) before making these changes.

Assign a role to a person

1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
2. Select the ‘More’ tab.
3. Select ‘Roles’.
4. Search for the role title and select ‘Edit’.
5. Select ‘New appointment’ to assign the role to a new person.
6. Enter a start date. If there is a previous role-holder, they will automatically be removed from the role on this date.

You must only assign a role to a person on or after the day they take up the role. The person will appear on your organisation page once you’ve assigned them to a role.

Once you’ve assigned someone to the role, check if the biography on their people page needs updating.

Add a translation to a role or people page

You need to translate both the role page and the people page separately.

Translate a role page

1. In Whitehall Publisher, select the ‘More’ tab.
2. Select ‘Roles’.
3. Search for the role title and select ‘Manage’.
4. Select the translation you want to add and then ‘Create new translation’.
5. Add the translated text and select ‘Save’.

Translate a people page

1. In Whitehall Publisher, select the ‘More’ tab.
2. Select ‘People’.
3. Search for the person and select ‘View’.
4. Go to the ‘Translations’ tab, select the translation you want to add and then ‘Create new translation’.
5. Add the translated text and select ‘Save’.

Delete a role or person

Never delete either a role or a person from GOV.UK.

The list of government ministers and the lists of ministers on organisation pages automatically list only the current role appointments.