Updates: Style guide
2021
2 September 2021 published amendments
1 September 2021 published amendments
Added 'COVID-19 status', 'fully vaccinated', 'NHS COVID Pass' and 'vaccination status'. Added definition for 'antibody test'.
3 August 2021 published amendments
Clarified rule when writing about county courts. Use lower case when writing about county courts in general. Use capitals when part of a proper noun.
28 July 2021 published amendments
Added new entries: ‘daily contact testing’, ‘mobile test unit’, ‘Royal Mail barcode’, ‘Royal Mail priority postbox’, ‘test kit barcode’, ‘test order ID’, ‘test site’, ‘test subject ID’ and ‘surge testing’.
Added definitions for ‘contact tracing’ and ‘NHS Test and Trace service’.
28 June 2021 published amendments
Added ‘variant’, ‘variant of concern’ and ‘variant under investigation’.
24 May 2021 published amendments
Amended ‘Brexit’ to clarify that it’s better to use specific dates, unless referring to Brexit historically.
Added ‘Withdrawal Agreement’ to make clear to avoid linking to the legal document from guidance content.
18 May 2021 published amendments
Added ‘red list’, ‘amber list’ and ‘green list’. Updated ‘self-isolating’ and ‘quarantine’. Use ‘self-isolating’ for people who have coronavirus (COVID-19) symptoms, a positive COVID-19 test or have been in contact with someone who has tested positive. Use ‘quarantine’ for people who’ve arrived from a country or territory on the red list or amber list and must quarantine.
6 April 2021 published amendments
Updated 'coronavirus (COVID-19)' to direct to the new 'Coronavirus (COVID-19) A to Z' style guide.
New section added.
4 February 2021 published amendments
Clarified rule when writing about local councils. Use lower case when writing about local councils in general. Use capitals for the official name of a local council.
1 February 2021 published amendments
Added references to Scottish Parliament, Senedd Cymru and Northern Ireland Assembly. Corrected outdated reference to 'Welsh Assembly'.
2020
11 November 2020 published amendments
Use 'Great Britain (England, Wales and Scotland)' when 'UK' is not appropriate because you're not including Northern Ireland. Where possible, make a specific point of saying that Northern Ireland is not included in this group.
15 September 2020 published amendments
Removed 3 department names in ‘Capitals for government departments’ - Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Development and Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Added 'Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)'.
22 July 2020 published amendments
19 May 2020 published amendments
12 March 2020 published amendments
27 February 2020 published amendments
Added 'disabled people' to the style guide, as well as a link to guidance on words to use and avoid when writing about disability.
27 January 2020 published amendments
6 January 2020 published amendments
2019
19 November 2019 published amendments
21 October 2019 published amendments
European Economic Area (EEA) - clarified you should say 'the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein' when rules covering the EEA also cover Switzerland
3 October 2019 published amendments
Changed borough council styling to upper case in a name (from lower case in all instances)
Update to capitalisation of local councils: from lower case in all instances to using capitals for the official name of a local council.
18 September 2019 published amendments
Clarified how to refer to organisations - Use the singular verb form when referring to organisations by name. Use 'they' when replacing an organisation name with a pronoun.
Added detail about avoiding the use of 'European Economic Area (EEA)' as it is not widely understood.
5 September 2019 published amendments
CHANGED:
- if you add links they appear within the text and not as the whole bullet
TO:
- you do not make the whole bullet a link if it's a long phrase
6 August 2019 published amendments
8 July 2019 published amendments
27 June 2019 published amendments
Added 'customs union', 'implementation period' and 'Parliamentary report' to the style guide.
25 February 2019 published amendments
2018
3 December 2018 published amendments
2 October 2018 published amendments
17 September 2018 published amendments
Updated the hyphenation guidance to include a link to the Guardian style guide. This replaces Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors.
8 August 2018 published amendments
Changed the style guide to allow the use of bold for instructions. For example, you can use bold to explain what field a user needs to fill in on a form, or what button they need to select.
18 July 2018 published amendments
Clarified use of bullet points where it's necessary to explain if all or some of the points apply.
Updated 'User ID' to 'user ID' (lower case 'user').
10 July 2018 published amendments
16 April 2018 published amendments
We've updated our guidance about contractions. We now recommend avoiding negative contractions like can't and don't.
8 February 2018 published amendments
19 January 2018 published amendments
Updated 2 department names in ‘Capitals for government departments’ - Department of Health and Social Care, and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
2017
20 November 2017 published amendments
9 November 2017 published amendments
8 November 2017 published amendments
23 October 2017 published amendments
1 August 2017 published amendments
Added guidance about using the names in country and territory registers when referencing countries or territories on GOV.UK.
25 July 2017 published amendments
Added entry for blog post.
Added 'Welsh Government' and clarified when it's 'Government', not 'government'.
12 July 2017 published amendments
15 June 2017 published amendments
13 June 2017 published amendments
14 February 2017 published amendments
13 February 2017 published amendments
1 February 2017 published amendments
17 January 2017 published amendments
3 January 2017 published amendments
Updated ampersand entry. Use an ampersand in a company's name if that's how it appears on the Companies House register.
2016
14 December 2016 published amendments
12 December 2016 published amendments
1 December 2016 published amendments
29 November 2016 published amendments
Expanded information under capitalisation to include 'autumn statement and spring statement'.
4 November 2016 published amendments
11 October 2016 published amendments
22 August 2016 published amendments
15 August 2016 published amendments
Added more information about when to use 'midnight' and when to use '11:59pm' to refer to a specific time.
22 July 2016 published amendments
Removed or replaced all instances of eg, ie and etc (except for the entries on eg, ie and etc). Stripped out inverted commas where it doesn't harm comprehension.
19 July 2016 published amendments
18 March 2016 published amendments
17 February 2016 published amendments
Measurements: allowing exceptions for very specialist audiences
Changed:
###online services
Lower case unless part of a proper noun. HMRC Online Services should be upper case when referred to in full. Equally if you want to refer to a named service, it should be upper case, eg ‘Submit your company tax return using Corporation Tax Online’.
To:
###online services
Lower case unless part of a proper noun. HMRC Online Services should be upper case when referred to in full. Equally if you want to refer to a named service, it should be upper case, eg 'Submit your Company Tax Return using Corporation Tax Online'.
Changed:
###tax returns
Upper case the first time they are mentioned (for example: ‘Company Tax Return’, ‘Partnership Tax Return’, ‘Employer Annual Return’). After that refer to them in full, or if it’s clear what you’re referring to, simply as a ‘return’. General references to tax return are always in lower case.
When referring to the legal requirement we use ‘deliver’ or ‘file’ the return. Online, we say ‘submit’ the return. For Self Assessment (paper or online) use ‘send’ or ‘file’ the return. ‘Send’ is better.
To:
###tax returns
Upper case when referring to proper titles for the first time (for example: ‘Company Tax Return’, ‘Partnership Tax Return’, ‘Employer Annual Return’). Use ‘Self Assessment tax return’ at first mention, as it’s not a proper title.
After that refer to them in full, or if it’s clear what you’re referring to, simply as a ‘return’. General references to tax return are always in lower case.
When referring to the legal requirement we use ‘deliver’ or ‘file’ the return. Online, we say ‘submit’ the return. For Self Assessment (paper or online) use ‘send’ or ‘file’ the return. ‘Send’ is better.
Changed:
###Self Assessment tax return
Use ‘Self Assessment tax return’ the first time it’s mentioned on a page. After that use ‘tax return’.
To:
###Self Assessment tax return
See tax returns.
15 February 2016 published amendments
10 February 2016 published amendments
3 February 2016 published amendments
2015
28 October 2015 published amendments
27 October 2015 published amendments
14 October 2015 published amendments
14 September 2015 published amendments
Added '6 hours 30 minutes' under Times.
Added statement not to use spaces before abbreviated measurements under Measurements.
Added not to label email addresses under Email addresses.
28 July 2015 published amendments
20 July 2015 published amendments
Added new entry for Statistics with a link to the ONS style guide (http://style.ons.gov.uk/).
Added The Crown, the Royal Family, the Civil Service, Parliament, byelaw, schoolchildren, and em and en dashes.