Use the right tone
The ‘tone of voice’ for GOV.UK content is:
- specific
- informative
- clear and concise
- brisk, but not terse
- incisive (friendliness can lead to a lack of precision and unnecessary words) – but remain human (not a faceless machine)
- serious but not pompous
- emotionless – adjectives can be subjective and make the text sound more emotive and like spin
Write conversationally. Picture your audience and write as if you were talking to them one-to-one, but with the authority of someone who can actively help.
Use the active voice rather than the passive voice.
There’s usually no need to say ‘please’ or ‘please note’. This includes when giving an instruction or explaining what a user needs to do, like “Please contact us”.
Do not use block capitals for large amounts of text. It’s hard to read and it can be understood as shouting.
Do not use offensive language
You must not use offensive words or terms in GOV.UK content, including attachments.
This includes using swear words and words in an offensive context about:
- race
- ethnicity
- nationality
- religion
- disability
- mental health
- gender identity
- sexual orientation
- body parts
- sexual references
Tribunal decisions published by HM Courts and Tribunals Service are exempt. This is because decisions include quotes from people involved in a case.
For help avoiding offensive terms, read more about:
Address the user directly
Address the user as ‘you’ where possible.
Content on the site often makes a direct appeal to citizens and businesses to get involved or take action. For example: “You can contact HM Revenue and Customs by phone and email” or “Pay your car tax”.
When writing in the third person, make sure text is gender neutral wherever possible. For example, say "They can… " rather than “He or she can…”.
Make it clear who has written the content
When referring to your own organisation, you can always refer to your organisation as ‘we’ when:
- the ‘About us’ section of your organisation page, as it will be obvious who ‘we’ is
- in policies, like when saying “We announced our intention…”
In other content, make sure you’ve already used the full name of your organisation before you use ‘we’. Do not assume the audience will know who the ‘we’ is.