Published on 17th October 2012

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GOV.UK is the best place to find government services and information. It's a new website that will bring most of the information published by government online in one place.

Visit www.gov.uk to find the business and citizen information that used to be held on the Directgov and Businesslink websites. On the new website you will find information about a whole host of services including:

  • Passports
  • Driving licences, MOTs and car tax
  • Student loans and admissions
  • School admissions and help with school costs
  • Legal processes, courts and the law
  • Benefits
  • Working, jobs and pensions
  • Money and tax
  • Doing business - including tools and guidance for businesses
  • Licence applications for business and events

Over the next year, we will see information published by 24 departments and a handful of non-departmental bodies moved to GOV.UK.  This process will be finished by December 2013.

Why is GOV.UK being built?

There are currently hundreds of government websites, all with different publishing platforms and styles. The Government Digital Service (GDS) will reduce that number to one (except for a few organisations that have been granted exemption from moving to GOV.UK).

Currently, government websites are all built to very different specifications, making them difficult for users to navigate and expensive for government to build and maintain.  GDS will fix this by building and operating a single website for all government organisation with consistent look and feel.  Fixing this will make interacting with government online easier and quicker for users, while saving time and money for government organisations.