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Topical event pages

Note:

If you need to edit a topical event page published before 24 April 2026, see our separate guidance on older topical event pages. This page is only for topical event pages added on or after 24 April 2026.

Topical event pages are used to communicate government activity about high-profile events or in response to a major crisis.

Use for an event or crisis that is all of the following:

  • high profile
  • current or relevant only for a short time (for example Ebola virus: UK government response)
  • of significance to the majority of GOV.UK’s users (such as if the event is receiving extensive coverage by major news media, like the Today programme)
  • the responsibility of central government
  • linked to more than one government department or agency
  • likely to generate a high volume of content (not just one or two news stories)

Do not use for:

  • issues on which the government position can be covered by publications or document collections (for example, changes to the healthcare system)
  • issuing emergency guidance – consider how to reach your intended audience quickly, like social media or press releases
  • events which can be reasonably covered by a lead news story on a departmental homepage (although news stories may develop into topical event pages following additional content generation or increased public interest)
  • influencing behaviour change – this is the role of campaign sites

Get approval to create a new topical event page

Your GOV.UK lead or a managing editor needs to ask the Government Digital Service (GDS) for approval before creating the page.

The request will need to show that your event meets all of the above criteria.

Once you have that approval, then you can add a new page.

Create a draft

To create or update this content type, you’ll need a Signon account with access to Whitehall Publisher.

Once you’ve created a draft, you need to add the title, summary and description fields before you can save it.

If you’re creating a new topical event page

  1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
  2. Select the ‘New document’ tab.
  3. Select ‘Topical event’ and then select the ‘Next’ button.

If you’re updating an existing topical event page

  1. Go to Whitehall Publisher.
  2. Select the ‘Documents’ tab.
  3. Search for the topical event you want to edit, and select the ‘View’ link next to it. This will take you to the edition summary page.
  4. Select the ‘Create new edition’ button. If a new edition has already been created, select the ‘Go to draft’ link. You can then select ‘Edit draft’ or, if you do not want to use this draft, select ‘Delete draft’ and then select ‘Create new edition’.

Add or edit the title, summary and body

Title

Use the name of the event and the year (for example ‘D5 London 2014’) and state if it’s a government response to a crisis or event (for example ‘Ebola virus: UK government response’).

Names must be unique and cannot be changed once published. They do not need a full stop. When you save your page this will become its ‘slug’, which users will see as the last section of the page URL.

Summary

Give a summary of the topical event. Write it as a complete sentence with a full stop.

Body

Keep the description short and use it to briefly explain:

  • what the event is
  • how the government is involved
  • what users will find on the page

You can also use it to link to related policies, statements of action or presentations.

Do not repeat the title or summary.

Tag organisations

Your own organisation will be set as a lead organisation as default, but you can change that or add any other organisations if they’re responsible for the content.

Lead organisations will be listed on the topical event page in the order you add them in the draft. Supporting organisations will be shown in alphabetical order.

Update settings of the draft

Under the ‘Settings’ heading, you can:

  • select ‘Schedule publication’, if you want the draft published at a certain time and date
  • select ‘Review date’, if you want to get an email asking you to check the content at a later date after you’ve published it

Select ‘Limit access’ under ‘Settings’ if your draft is sensitive. This means only users from organisations tagged to the content can see it before it’s published. It will not be copied across to Integration.

Add or edit social media accounts

You can add and remove social media accounts in the ‘Social media accounts’ tab.

To add an account, select the ‘Add a social media account’ button and then choose the channel type and add the URL.

Avoid putting something generic or very short in the ‘Title’ field, which appears as link text. For example, put ‘DWP on X’ rather than just ‘X’. Generic or short link text can create accessibility issues.

Add or edit images

You can add:

  • a header image - this will show at the top of the page, next to the title and summary text
  • an event logo - this will show next to the description text

Make sure you’ve correctly formatted the images before you add them.

To add an image:

  1. Select the ‘Images’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Add’ in the header image or event logo box.
  3. Choose your file and select ‘Upload’. If you’re going to use more than one image, make sure they all have a different file name.
  4. If it’s a header image, you can add a caption or image credit on the next screen. Leave it blank if you do not need to. Select ‘Save’ when you’re done.

If the image requires cropping, it will say this when you go back to the ‘Images’ tab.

Select ‘Edit’ to crop the image or to edit the caption on header images.

Tag a piece of content to the topical event page

You can tag content by adding an association to the topical event. You can do it for these content types:

Content tagged to the topical event will automatically appear in the ‘Latest’ feed.

Feature tagged content

You can feature up to 6 pieces of content. Any items you feature must include an image. Read the guidance on formatting images for help with picking an image.

If the content is published through Whitehall Publisher:

  1. Select the ‘Featured’ tab.
  2. Select the ‘GOV.UK content’ tab.
  3. Search for the document you want to feature using the filters on the left hand side. Only content tagged to the topical event will show in the list.
  4. Select the ‘Feature’ link next to the document you would like to feature.
  5. Select an image to be shown on your topical event page with this feature. You do not need to provide alt text.

If the content is not published through Whitehall Publisher:

  1. Select the ‘Featured’ tab.
  2. Select the ‘External websites’ tab.
  3. Select ‘Add an external link’.
  4. Complete the title, summary, type and URL fields and select ‘Save’.
  5. Select the ‘Feature’ link next to the external page you would like to feature.
  6. Select an image to be shown on your topical event page with this feature. You do not need to provide alt text.

Change the order of featured content

You can change the order of featured content.

  1. Select the ‘Featured’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Reorder pages’ and then drag items up or down in the list.
  3. When you’re done setting the order, select ‘Update order’.

Unfeature content

  1. Select the ‘Featured’ tab.
  2. Select ‘Unfeature’ to remove featured content from your topical events page.

Add or remove topic tags

You need to tag your draft to at least one topic page before you can publish it.

Your content will appear on the tagged topic pages when:

  • the draft is published, if it’s new content
  • you save the new tagged topic pages, if you’re updating existing content

See the ‘Education, training and skills’ topic page for an example of what these topic pages look like.

To add tags:

  1. Select ‘Save and go to document summary’ on your current draft.
  2. Under the ‘Topic taxonomy tags’ heading, select ‘Add tags’ or ‘Change tags’.
  3. Tick the boxes next to each topic that applies. The arrows next to each topic will expand the topic out, showing all sub-topics in that topic ‘tree’.
  4. Select ‘Save’.

To remove tags, select ‘Remove topic’ next to the one you want to remove and then select ‘Save’.

Choose topic tags:

  • based only on what the content is about
  • from anywhere in the topic ‘tree’, not just the areas that your organisation uses the most

Try to choose the most specific topics you can.

You can tag your content to as many topic pages as are relevant. There’s no limit.

Publish the draft

Find out how to send the draft for review.

If you need to publish it urgently without a review, find out when you can publish your own draft.