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People and roles

How to create people and roles and special instructions for creating ministers.

People and roles

People and their roles are covered by 2 separate sections of Whitehall publisher. You need the person first, then you can assign a role to them by editing the role.

In publisher you can:

  • create new people
  • create new roles
  • reassign roles to people

Add a person to GOV.UK

Check with the Government Digital Service (GDS) before creating a new minister.

  1. Select ‘People’ in the ‘More’ tab to see a list of every person featured on GOV.UK.

  2. Check that there’s not already a page for the person using the search bar.

  3. If there’s no existing page, click ‘Create new person’.

  4. Add a title, forename, surname, any ‘post-nominal’ letters such as ‘MBE’, and a biography.

  5. Upload an image. It must be 960 x 640 px and minimum 75 dpi. Photos on a white background need a light tint overlay.

Create a role

Check with GDS before creating a ministerial role. You do not need to check with GDS before adding a new managerial role or department role.

  1. Select ‘Roles’ in the ‘More’ tab to see a list of every role featured on GOV.UK.

  2. Click ‘Create new role’ to create a new role.

  3. Add a ‘Role title’ and ‘Role type’ and complete as many of the other fields as possible.

  4. Write a description of the role’s responsibilities. This will appear alongside the person with this role so do not repeat content.

  5. Save the role.

When you create or update a ministerial role, you’ll need to get the responsibilities section confirmed with the minister’s and Number 10’s private offices.

Assign a role to a person

  1. Select ‘Roles’ in the ‘More’ tab to see a list of every role featured on GOV.UK.

  2. Find the role from the list and open it for editing.

  3. Click ‘New appointment’ to assign the role to a new person.

  4. Enter a start date. The old role-holder will automatically be removed from the role on this date.

You must only assign a role to a person on or after the day they take up the role. The person will appear on your organisation page once you’ve assigned them to a role.

New roles and role changes

If the name of a role changes, create a new role rather than edit the existing one. Assign the person to the new role, and untag the old role from your organisation. 

If a person is staying in their role but their responsibilities change, you can update the responsibilities section of the existing role.

Interim roles

If a role is being temporarily filled (for example, to cover someone on maternity or paternity leave) you must create a new role for an interim position.

This should have the same name as the original role but with ‘interim’ at the beginning, for example, interim chief executive officer.

Do not change anything about the original role or assign it to anyone until it’s been permanently filled. When it has, you can also remove the person from the interim role.

Create a new minister

There is a special workflow for making changes to the list of government ministers on GOV.UK. This page is used by the media and public as a primary source of information, so it’s important that these details are always accurate.

The Number 10 (Prime Minister’s Office) digital communications team is responsible for the accuracy of ministerial information on GOV.UK.

When changes of ministerial responsibility are announced - for example, during a government reshuffle - the Number 10 team contacts GDS and the affected departments to:

  • confirm details of the changes
  • agree responsibilities for publishing updated information

GDS and Number 10 will usually create and assign the people and role pages. They will then contact you when you can take over responsibility for the page to add the remaining information.

Add a translation

You need to translate both the role page and the people page separately.

Translate a role page

  1. Select ‘Roles’ in the ‘More’ tab to see a list of every role featured on GOV.UK.

  2. Click ‘Manage’ next to the relevant role.

  3. Select the translation you want to add and then ‘Create new translation’.

  4. Add the translated text and click ‘Save’.

Translate a people page

  1. Select ‘People’ in the ‘More’ tab to see a list of every person featured on GOV.UK.

  2. Click ‘View’ next to the relevant person.

  3. Go to the ‘Translations’ tab, select the translation you want to add and then ‘Create new translation’.

  4. Add the translated text and click ‘Save’.

Delete a role or a person

Never delete either a role or a person from GOV.UK.

The list of government ministers and the lists of ministers on organisation pages automatically list only the current role appointments.