Completing the moving to GOV.UK

Our consular services and worldwide pages are now on GOV.UK, the last major part of our move to the single government website.

This has been a substantial exercise, involving around 250 sites and tens of thousands of pages of content. It has involved close work over six months between the Government Digital Service and FCO, as well as the contribution of staff across our worldwide network.

The move to GOV.UK will yield significant benefits:

• better services and information for our users: key Foreign Office services, such as travel advice, have been streamlined and improved with website user needs front and centre. Information on our activities in individual countries and on individual policies is now joined up with that from other government departments;
• a more modern site: GOV.UK displays on mobiles and tablets, and will be continually improved by the Government Digital Service;
• time savings for our staff: GOV.UK is around six times quicker to update than our previous site. This will allow staff to focus on higher value activity, including improving digital content and engagement;
• and financial savings: the move to GOV.UK will save the Foreign Office around £1.5m a year in running our own separate platform, delivering an important reduction in expenditure.

Given the scale and complexity of the move, our immediate focus will be on dealing with any issues that arise in transition and double-checking content.

After that, we will be working to make the most of the opportunities offered by GOV.UK. We will be providing guidance to our posts on how to take advantage of time savings to most effectively project themselves digitally overseas. We will be working to take advantage of the continuous improvements to GOV.UK – for example the planned introduction of location awareness – to enhance our information and services. And we will make full use of GOV.UK as we implement the ambitious change agenda in our digital strategy.

In the intense activity around this move, it has sometimes been easy to forget just how radical a change the creation of a single government website represents – all government information and services in one place, with website users getting better services and a fuller picture of government.

This transition has helped us to see first-hand the benefits of agile delivery and rigorous user focus. It is one part of the change all departments will need to make to reap the full benefits of digital.