The UK Government is rolling out GOV.UK Forms across all its departments, making it faster and easier for the public to fill out forms.
GOV.UK Forms has already been used to speed up registration for redress for more than 300 sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal, with forms taking less than five minutes to complete.
It’s also been used by the public to register XL Bully dogs and recruit more than 400 new volunteer coastguards, with the tool already saving an estimated two years in processing time.
GOV.UK Forms offers the public an online platform to fill in their details, meaning they no longer have to rely on clunky PDFs or lengthy paperwork.
The tool will now be rolled out across all government departments after a successful trial and provide civil servants with a digital platform that allows them to create and manage secure, accessible forms online.
Minister for AI and Digital Government Feryal Clark unveiled the full rollout of GOV.UK Forms at the Digital Nations Ministerial Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, yesterday.
“We’re enabling citizens to access essential government services more easily and securely, whether it’s applying for long overdue compensation or to become a volunteer,” she said. “Not only will this modernise how the public interacts with us, but it allows departments to focus resources on improving public services – rather than administrative tasks.
“This early success marks the start of our ongoing mission to refine digital tools, building trust and ensuring government works for everyone, everywhere.”
Following successful private beta and early access phases, GOV.UK Forms will now enter a ‘public beta’ testing phase, which will mean it is applied more widely where citizens need to share information with the government.
To date, 87 forms have been published, with more than 1,200 government users adopting the platform, saving more than two years in processing time.
“GOV.UK Forms enables people running government services to create online forms in minutes, without the need for coding or design skills,” said Christine Bellamy, CEO of the Government Digital Service (GDS).
“By enabling teams to replace paper-based forms with digital alternatives that are quicker to process, more secure and more accessible, we’re helping to realise a more modern digital government that helps to give people their time back.”
The platform complies with government standards on accessibility and cybersecurity, enabling all users, including those with access needs, to use the forms. It also meets accessibility standards and regularly tests new features to keep the forms easy to use.
