National emergencies
The government will use GOV.UK to publish information for the public in the event of a national emergency.
Who is involved
A lead agency will co-ordinate publishing. The Civil Contingencies Secretariat decides which agency this is.
The lead agency must make sure that:
- GOV.UK provides a single source of government information on the emergency
- there is a high quality user journey between information published by different agencies responding to the emergency
The Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR) is also likely to be involved.
The Government Digital Service (GDS) can provide emergency support. If needed, they can put the GOV.UK homepage into national emergency mode.
What to do
The lead agency should nominate a co-ordinator - for example, the head of its digital team.
The co-ordinator should then work through the following steps:
- Create a destination page on GOV.UK.
- Contact GDS to deploy the GOV.UK ‘national emergency’ homepage (if needed).
- Organise further publishing with other agencies.
Step 1: Create a destination page on GOV.UK
The government will promote a single page on GOV.UK as the destination for users who need information about the emergency.
It should start with important information for the public, and then link out to more detailed information. The Woolwich newsroom article is a good example of this.
A link to the destination page should be given to the news media.
How to publish the page
The co-ordinator from the lead agency needs to publish the page in Whitehall Publisher.
Typically the page will use the [news article type](link tbc), but this is flexible. For example, a co-ordinator could use:
- a [topical event page](link tbc) (this requires GDS approval)
- a [travel advice page](link tbc), in the case of an overseas crisis
- an existing guide, in the case of a farming crisis
The page’s title should include keywords specific to the incident, but be broad enough to allow for updates, for example:
- Woolwich incident: government response
- Woolwich incident: government updates
- Woolwich incident: government information and advice
The new page should go live straight away once published.
Updating the page
The page should be updated frequently as the emergency situation changes.
Make sure the page does not become cluttered. When you add new information, check the page is still well-organised and users can find what they need.
For significant changes, change notes must be used to describe how the page has changed. The updated page will then appear in GOV.UK latest news feeds and email alerts.
Updates should go live within 5 minutes of publishing.
Step 2: Contact GDS to deploy the GOV.UK ‘national emergency’ homepage
Only do this if the emergency poses an immediate risk to life and demands immediate mass public action.
The co-ordinator in the lead agency needs to call the GDS emergency phone number.
They can find the phone number under ‘Update GOV.UK following a national emergency’ on the emergency contact details page. They need a [Signon account](link tbc) to access that page.
GDS will confirm their identity and verify that the emergency is of an appropriate scale to deploy the GOV.UK emergency homepage.
It takes 30 minutes to deploy the emergency homepage.
The emergency homepage features a prominent red banner. The banner also appears in a less prominent form at the top of every page on GOV.UK.
What goes on the banner
The co-ordinator will need to provide:
- wording for the banner
- a link to the destination page created in Step 1
Follow the banner wording guidance. GDS can provide out-of-hours content design support. The emergency contact will be able to put the co-ordinator in touch.
Banner wording
The banner is made up of 3 parts:
- headline - 30 characters or less
- body text - 2 sentences or less, including any important, practical messages for users
- link - an optional link to the destination page
Strip any formatting (such as bold text) from the banner wording.
Content for the banner should be brief and clear. Users are likely to:
- be in stressful situations
- need to take immediate action
- read the banner on a mobile phone
Because the banner will display on every page of GOV.UK, it will also affect how usable the whole site is.
Examples:
Headline: London security incident
Body text: There has been a major incident in central London. Public transport is suspended in Zone 1.
Link: Find out about the government’s response to the incident.
Headline: Flooding in south west England
Body text: There are severe floods and storms across the south west of England. The M5 motorway is closed.
Link: Find out about the government’s response to the flooding.
Step 3: Organise further publishing with other agencies
As soon as possible after a severe crisis has been identified, the lead agency and a member of the GOV.UK programme team should arrange a conference call. The conference call will include representatives from the digital teams in relevant departments.
GDS will choose a single content-related point of contact to help with any further publishing.
This conference call, and follow-up calls and documentation, will establish:
- promotion of the agreed single destination from departmental homepages and social media
- content responsibilities of different departments
If the emergency is severe, GDS can also help with analysis of:
- search terms used by citizens, to ensure content is optimised
- performance of destination content (bounce rates, user journeys)