GOV.UK blogs

Sustainable farm-based proteins: funding available

We’re inviting farmers, growers, foresters, businesses and researchers to apply for a share of £12.5 million to focus on the research and development of sustainable farm-based proteins.

Cryptocurrencies: what are they, and should charities use them?

Over the course of human history, there have been several developmental leaps in the way in which people trade and exchange. Each has opened the door to transformational benefits, but also created new challenges and risks for society to navigate. …

University admissions and A level, T level and VTQ results: Your questions answered

This year young people have taken exams and assessments in A levels, T levels and other post 16 qualifications for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic. Results will look different to the last 2 years, because the …

Why we’ve decided to decommission GOV.UK PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Read about why we have decided to decommission GOV.UK PaaS and what we are doing next.

Why Civil Service leadership training is changing

Want to gain the right skills to tackle the challenges of the 21st Century? Here’s how the Leadership College for Government can help you. How often do you think about what makes an amazing leader or manager? While some people …

Working towards a healthy Commonwealth Games

This summer the West Midlands is hosting the Commonwealth Games. Preparing for, and managing the Games, is a massive undertaking involving a diverse range of agencies from across the UK and the Commonwealth.

One of the most important tasks partners have is keeping the 6,600 competitors and their teams from 72 nations, around 40,000 volunteers, spectators (one million tickets have been sold) and the local community healthy during this huge event.

Solving an interesting problem with Sender Policy Framework records

The Securing Government Services team found and fixed a curious problem regarding email security

Test and trial: Learning from the North Cumbria Farmers Group

In the latest video in the series about the North Cumbria Farmers Group Test and Trial, uplands livestock farmers Steve and Colin explain their reasons for taking part.

The education inspection framework (EIF) – looking ahead to September 2022

Christopher Russell, our National Director, Education, discusses the recent changes to our EIF handbooks and moving beyond transitional arrangements. We are coming to the end of another academic year and looking ahead to September 2022. Following our return to inspection, …

Preparing your fishery for the summer

Spring and summer can trigger a range of problems for fisheries, and it’s important to understand how to prepare and protect them. It’s vital that anglers and fishery managers recognise the risks posed by warmer weather; remain vigilant for signs …

Government action to tackle air pollution

Today’s blog looks at Government action to tackle air pollution

Old vs new: how the greats of graphic design influence our work

Many examples of contemporary design reference great graphic design from the past. To mark the Platinum Jubilee year, this article is looking back over the last 70 years to see how classic design influences our work at Design102.

Evaluating the reforms of Functional Skills Qualifications

Introducing reformed Functional Skills Reformed Functional Skills qualifications (FSQs) were first awarded in 2019 and today we have published research that we did in 2019 as part of our initial evaluation of those qualifications.   Ofqual’s role is to make sure …

How GOV.UK Pay is making invoicing easier

Learn about what the GOV.UK Pay team have been doing to improve the functionality of the website to make invoicing easier.

Starting the conversation on food safety and net zero carbon

Professor Robin May, our Chief Scientific Adviser, discusses the findings from the Science Council’s newly published interim report on food safety and net zero carbon.

I-VMS update 5

It’s really encouraging that so many vessels across our English inshore have installed their onboard I-VMS devices and received the grant funding to re-imburse their costs, but we realise there is still much work to do. We have now hit …

Factsheet: Amendment to the Online Safety Bill to help tackle child sexual exploitation and abuse online

On the 5th July, the government introduced an amendment to the Online Safety Bill to strength Ofcom's powers in relation to Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (CSEA).

Taking the sting out of vector borne diseases

Doctor Luis M. Hernández-Triana and Suzanna Bell are APHA Discipline Champions and experts in the field of vector borne diseases. In this blog, they describe how APHA are involved in vector borne disease research and the importance of these emerging pathogens.

Introducing You To...

Hi, I’m Andrew. I’m part of the Countryside Stewardship (CS) Applications Higher Tier team and I’m based in Nottingham. I’ve been with RPA just over a year now and have worked on Higher Tier since last September. Primarily I work …

World Zoonoses Day – How you can help protect our dogs from Brucella canis

World Zoonoses Day is held every year to commemorate the first vaccination against zoonotic disease – infectious diseases caused by bacteria, viruses, and parasites spread between animals and humans. World Zoonoses day is particularly timely this year to highlight the risk …

Exam results 2022: 10 things to know about GCSE, AS and A level grades

The last 2 years have been tough for students. That’s why we put in place an unprecedented package of support to make the path back to pre-pandemic arrangements as smooth as possible. Here are 10 things that you need to …

What’s behind this summer’s VTQ results?

As qualifications regulator, our main concern is always students. It is important that students taking qualifications that are used for the same purposes are not advantaged or disadvantaged. This includes students taking vocational and technical qualifications (VTQs) when compared to …

Improving the transparency of scientific evidence

Improving the transparency of scientific evidence  Transparency and openness of scientific evidence informing government policy making is of the utmost importance to the Government Office for Science (GOS). By transparent and open, we mean that evidence is fully accessible to …

Space sustainability plans will pave the way for future generations

Edward Baker reflects on the 4th Summit for Space Sustainability and how ambitious UK plans will benefit space users around the world.

Consultation on a judgement for care leavers in our inspections of local authority children’s services

Yvette Stanley, our National Director for Social Care, discusses our proposal to inspect the experiences and progress of care leavers. In June we announced proposals to introduce a separate judgement about the experiences and progress of care leavers in our …

A complete guide to GFiE - Care Leavers

Here we provide a full guide to recruitment through Going Forward into Employment (GFiE) for Care Leavers. What is this scheme? The GFIE Care Leavers scheme is a pilot working with a small number of Local Authorities to match care …

Competition or consumer lawyer? The CMA has secondment opportunities for you!

We’ve launched a new round of secondment opportunities for competition and consumer lawyers, where you will get the exciting opportunity to get involved in our casework, while getting an insight into life at the CMA.

SATs results – your questions answered

We want as many pupils as possible to leave primary school with the English and maths skills they need to meet their potential in secondary school. That’s why we use national curriculum tests – commonly known as SATs - to …

Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill

We want to provide as much helpful guidance as we can as the Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill continues its passage through Parliament to aid understanding for everyone. We also welcome any feedback or reflections on our proposals

How Job Sharing is Going Mainstream

Ruth Hannant and Polly Payne are the first DG-level Civil Service job share  The perception of job-sharing has shifted hugely in recent years from part-time jobs held by junior employees to gradually opening up many more high-powered roles for senior …

Emma Howard Boyd speech on finance, resilience, net zero and nature

Today there has been widespread coverage of warnings by Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency and Interim Chair of the Green Finance Institute, of how widespread greenwashing is compromising efforts to prepare for climate impacts. Her comments have …

Building our User Research Capability in DIT

DIT is reinvigorating its user research function. Read about some of the challenges we are addressing to increase our impact on DIT’s digital services.

How we are driving down the costs of childcare

The UK has some of the highest-quality childcare provision in the world with 96% of early years settings rated by Ofsted as good or outstanding, but it is also one of the biggest costs facing working families today. That’s why …

Podcast – the second series of ‘Think digital, act human’: job application do's and don'ts

Here is the second series of our ‘Think digital, act human’ podcast. In this episode, host Adaobi Ifeachor, speaks to Vita Shapland-Howes about recruitment in the civil service. Tune in to hear about name-blind recruitment, negotiating salaries, essential criteria and more.

The night sky in July

Look out for noctilucent clouds and possible meteors over the UK during the summer nights.

Opening up our code and logic for algorithmic decision-making

Read why we shared our Related Content recommender tool with the algorithmic transparency pilot.

Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) – Work placements in town planning

Duncan Phillpotts, Recruitment Officer, details the experiences of five local students who took part in a week of work experience with the Planning Inspectorate as part of the RTPI's EXPLORE work experience scheme.

Using ‘cooperative usability testing’ with our expert users

As User Researchers we care about getting the most from our testing by using the best research method for the task. Here’s how and why ‘cooperative usability testing’ harnesses the knowledge of our expert users.

COVID-19: the future of UKHSA surveillance

Since the onset of the pandemic scientists and researchers, aided and supported by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and DHSC, have mobilised to create surveillance systems that have infinitely improved our understanding of COVID-19. This blog looks at some of those systems.

How we are improving internet access in rural schools

Fast broadband is crucial to levelling up rural communities and will help pupils from across the country to succeed in their education, no matter where their school is.