Government Digital Service

Looking to make smarter decisions with your address data? 🏡📊 Geospatial: Government Digital Service has been exploring the benefits of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) – unique identifiers of up to 12 digits, assigned to every addressable location in the UK. Visit the Geospatial Insights blog to find out how UPRNs can: ✅ improve data quality ✅ boost interoperability ✅ help deliver better outcomes across government Read more from Emily Cowsill👇 https://lnkd.in/eDN5bVgH

The numbers are in! 📈  This is how people used GOV.UK in 2025. Last year was a milestone year for GOV.UK with the public beta launch of the GOV.UK app, the development of the official GOV.UK social media channels, and the continued improvement and iteration of the GOV.UK website.📱💻 🔎 We’ve seen that in 2025: 👉 The GOV.UK website had 1 billion visits and 2.3 billion page views, with an average of 85 million visits every month 👉 More than half of monthly visits to the website were on mobile – up from 13% when GOV.UK was released in 2012 👉 GOV.UK website pages with the highest-rising traffic included information about the electronic travel authorisation (ETA) – and it was the third busiest Budget on the website since 2020 👉 By the end of December, there had been 316,000 downloads of the GOV.UK app 👉 85% of users customised the GOV.UK app through choosing favourite topics or adding their local authority to their homepage 👉 Posts on GOV.UK’s social media channels sharing timely, trustworthy information and guidance attracted millions of views – on Facebook, an Emergency Alerts test reminder was viewed 1.9 million times At GDS, this type of data helps us to understand how we can develop GOV.UK to ensure it continues to meet people’s needs and work well for everyone. To learn more about how people used GOV.UK in 2025, read our latest post on the Inside GOV.UK blog: https://lnkd.in/eNsJD9yM #DigitalGovernment #GDS #Data

Data sharing will be a major focus for GDS in 2026 as we continue to modernise digital services across government. We’re starting the year by reflecting on one of our most impactful data-sharing projects from 2025. The UK–US Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) pilot for cancer research demonstrates a new model for international data sharing - one where data protection is built in by design. Working with the Information Commissioner's Office and NHS England, GDS helped overcome complex governance challenges to deliver a solution that reduced pre-research waiting times from over 12 months to just two. 👉 Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/eJPfGJHq Interested in learning more? Contact the PETs team at pets@dsit.gov.uk

🚨 How GDS is protecting lives with Emergency Alerts 🚨 The Government Digital Service (GDS) played a pivotal role in communicating critical information through the UK’s Emergency Alerts system about Storm Goretti – the sixth real-life emergency in which the service has been used. The Emergency Alerts system is developed and maintained by GDS on behalf of the Cabinet Office COBR Directorate. It was used on Thursday 8 January 2026 to send crucial alert messages to people’s mobile devices in Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly, after a red weather warning for extremely strong winds was issued by the Met Office for these locations. Alerts were sent to the Isles of Scilly at 3.03pm, and to Cornwall at 5pm, containing details of the expected impact of the severe weather, advice on what to do, and how to get further details on GOV.UK. These alerts were sent to around 500,000 compatible mobile phones and tablets. 📲 The Emergency Alerts system works by integrating with Mobile Network Operator 4G and 5G networks to broadcast live alerts from phone masts to all compatible devices in a targeted geographical area. This means it can reach millions of people simultaneously in seconds – warning and advising them about life-threatening emergencies quickly and clearly. ✅ See gov.uk/alerts to find out more.

It’s been a busy 12 months for the teams working on making the first UK government’s wallet a reality. In December, GDS and Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) began private testing of the digital driving licence. Our work builds on the success of the digital Veteran Card. This is government technology working the way people expect - secure, user-friendly, and built in partnership across departments. Public roll-out begins later this year, with the potential to give millions of driving licence holders more choice and convenience. Read more about our progress: https://lnkd.in/ejYjjKqp #DigitalGovernment #OneLogin #GDS

GOV.UK, run by GDS, is highly trusted as the single source of authoritative government guidance. ✅ This means it’s important that content designers and publishers can quickly and easily update GOV.UK with accurate, factual information. To help with this, GDS is exploring content modelling. This means breaking content down into the smallest reasonable pieces, and structuring them by adding information. As part of this work we’ve been trialling Content Block Manager – a new publishing application which allows GOV.UK publishers to create and reuse smaller “blocks” of content. This supports our goals around enabling publishers to manage content more efficiently, as well as providing information more rapidly to end users of GOV.UK’s digital channels. 💻 📱 ➡️ Find out how Content Block Manager works, what we’ve learned from testing and what’s next in our latest post on the Inside GOV.UK blog: https://lnkd.in/eXF_WNBi #DigitalGovernment #GDS #AI

Our new roadmap for modern digital government sets out how technology is transforming public services across the UK. ⚙️ From scaling AI for public good, to joining up services through GOV.UK App, One Login and new digital infrastructure, the roadmap shows the progress already made in every corner of the state, and the ambition through to 2030. It also highlights new initiatives like CustomerFirst, major steps in cyber security, and investment in digital talent. Read more on our blog below 👇 https://lnkd.in/eKfeeYwy #DigitalGovernment #GovTech #PublicSectorInnovation #AI #ServiceDesign

We’re launching a new unit, CustomerFirst, to transform organisations and improve citizen-facing public services with AI and modern digital solutions.   Our first partnership with the DVLA will look to improve millions of interactions for motorists, helping them get the answers they’re looking for quicker.   If you’re mission driven, passionate about wanting to make a meaningful impact on people’s lives, and are technically brilliant – we want to hear from you! We are bringing together transformation experts from across the public and private sectors. Head to https://lnkd.in/e_9wP9cZ to find out more.