.gov.uk - for your parish council?

The Government Digital Service has updated the guidance on naming and registering government domain names to make it faster, simpler and clearer to read through and decide whether you can apply for a gov.uk domain.

If you are a local authority you may want to use a gov.uk domain to instill confidence in your users, who use your website for advice/information or a service, or when communicating with them. A gov.uk domain makes clear that your organisation is official and can be trusted.

The Central Office of Information (COI) had responsibility for managing the guidance until late 2011 when the Government Digital Service took over; they took the opportunity revise the guidelines separating them into two different strands:

• central government (and its agencies)
• local government (including fire services, Associations of Local Councils, Internal Drainage Boards etc)

They are aware that parish and town councils often have part time staff and may not have a web team that has time to read and understand the guidance, along with all its technical conditions. So, they separated the strands and simplified the language. They believe this has made it easier to find what you are looking for and what to do next.

Please take a look at the new guidance here.