Guidance

Accessibility statement for The National Drugs Control System (NDS) Web

Updated 30 November 2023

© Crown copyright 2023

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-drugs-control-system-user-guide/accessibility-statement-for-the-national-drugs-control-system-nds-web

This accessibility statement applies to NDS Web 2.0 (dflu.homeoffice.gov.uk).

This website is run by United Nations (UN). We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, in a highly accessible website you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 200% without the text spilling off the screen

  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard

  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software

  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader

For the parts of this website where the website text is under the control of the Home Office, we have made the text as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. You can see a full list of any issues we currently know about in the Non-accessible content section of this statement.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or braille:

We’ll consider your request and get back to you as soon as we can.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we’re not meeting accessibility requirements, contact: DFLU.IE@homeoffice.gov.uk

Read tips on contacting organisation about inaccessible websites.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

If you are in Northern Ireland and are not happy with how we respond to your complaint you can contact the Equalities Commission for Northern Ireland who are responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’) in Northern Ireland.

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

Find out how to contact us

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

The Home Office is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

We will achieve this via the United Nations, who are the owners and authors of NDS. The UN Product team acknowledge the findings in the NDS Accessibility Audit Report produced by CACI based on an assessment in October 2022 of NDS Web vs. the WCAG 2.1 AA Accessibility Standard. The UN expects that NDS will be fully compliant with the standard by 2025, in line with the European Accessibility Act. All new development is already compliant. For pre-existing NDS functionality, remediations to achieve compliance will be added to the NDS Product Backlog and prioritised for delivery alongside all other requests from the UK and other UN Member States. The development schedule through to end of 2023 is already at full capacity, however it is likely that delivery of improvements to the accessibility of pre- existing functionality will start from 2024.

Compliance status

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard, due to the United Nations Product Team who maintain NDS being only part-way through their Programme of work to bring NDS into compliance. Any known non-compliances are listed below.

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

Thorough testing to confirm the accessibility of the website against the regulation requirements and WCAG 2.1 AA standard has been completed. The non- compliances are summarised as it follows:

  • Non-text content – some icons missing description, issues with filters within tables

  • Info and Relationships

  • Contrast (Minimum) - between background and foreground in text and non- text issues

  • Resize Text -text resize does not respond to all text on a page

  • Non-text contrast

  • Keyboard - limitation around keyboard accessible functions

  • Bypass blocks – lack of navigation landmarks and header tags

  • Page Titled - page title not structured as recommended.

  • On focus - opening “Help” or other dialog and then closing will reset the focus on the main page.

  • Error identification - inconsistent validation is being triggered before input submission.

Because of The United Nations Product Team who maintains NDS are part-way through their Programme of work to bring NDS into compliance by 2025, we stand ready to make reasonable adjustments for users until formal testing and proactive remediation plans can be confirmed and ask any users that encounter accessibility issues to get in touch with us to receive support and to notify us of issues so we can start making improvements.

If you find an issue that we have yet to identify, please contact us using one of the routes described in the ‘Reporting accessibility problems with this website’ section of this statement.

Disproportionate burden

At this time, we have not made any disproportionate burden claims.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Internal systems

Parts of NDS that are used by HO internal staff only are described as an “intranet” within the definition of the regulations and the system originally went live prior to September 2019. As such this system does not need to be compliant until such time as it has been substantially revised.

We have chosen to produce this accessibility statement in advance to support our users and our requirements under the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty.

At this time, we have not identified any further content that is not within scope of the accessibility regulations.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 23 January 2023. It was last reviewed on 23 January 2023. This website was last tested on 1 November 2022. The test was carried out by CACI.

We tested the service based on a user’s ability to complete key journeys. All parts of the chosen journeys were tested, including documents. Journeys were chosen on a number of factors including usage statistics, risk assessments and subject matter.

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