Guidance

Primary Authority Register: accessibility statement

Information on the accessibility of the Primary Authority Register for users.

This statement applies to the https://primary-authority.beis.gov.uk subdomain. It does not apply to content on the www.gov.uk domain published by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

We aim to make it accessible to as many users as possible. To achieve this, you should be able to:

  • change colours, contrast levels and fonts using browser or device settings
  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using a keyboard or speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader (including the most recent versions of JAWS, NVDA and Voiceover)

We’ve also made the website text as simple as possible to understand.

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

How accessible the Primary Authority Register is

Parts of the Primary Authority Register are not fully accessible. Some web pages have few accessibility issues like non-descriptive page titles for some pages, screen readers not reading status messages on the web pages, radio buttons state not being navigated for some fields, and improperly placed ‘Skip to main content’ links.

Feedback and contact information

If you find any problems that are not listed on this page or think we are not meeting the accessibility requirements, contact pa@businessandtrade.gov.uk.

If you request a response, we will aim to reply within 2 working days.

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).

Technical information about the accessibility of the Primary Authority Register

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

Compliance status

The website has been tested against the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard.

The Primary Authority Register is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 AA standard, due to the non-compliances and exemptions listed in non-accessible content section.

Non-accessible content

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

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

  • Some information and relationships are not programmatically determined. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.1 (Info and Relationships).
  • The mode to change the orientation is displayed as a shape without any text associated with the button. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.3.3 (Sensory Characteristics).
  • The color contrast ratio of a few elements is less than 4.5:1. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 1.4.3 (Contrast (Minimum)).
  • The ‘Skip to main content’ link is not the first link which appears on the page, this fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.1(Bypass Blocks).
  • Some pages lack a consistent focus order. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.3 (Focus Order).
  • Some content is not visible to the user. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 2.4.7 (Focus Visible).
  • Some content requiring user input lacks appropriate labels or instructions. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 3.3.2 (Labels or Instructions).
  • On some pages, there is no option to validate or check the data before removing. This fails to WCAG 2.2 success criteria 3.3.4 (Error Prevention (Legal, Financial, Data)).
  • Some content does not have an accessible name to help users identify its purpose and reference it. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.2 (Name, Role, Value).
  • Some status messages are not being read by the screen reader. This fails WCAG 2.2 success criterion 4.1.3 (Status Messages).

We plan to fix these issues by August 2025.

Disproportionate burden

Not applicable.

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

PDFs and other documents

The accessibility regulations do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they’re not essential to providing our services.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We will encourage businesses to ensure that the documents they upload to Primary Authority Register are accessible.

We also plan to fix the existing accessibility issues soon to remove the barriers for differently abled people.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on Monday 2 September 2024. It was last reviewed on Monday 2 September 2024.

This website was last tested in August 2024. The test was carried out by TestingXperts. The most viewed pages were tested using automated testing tools and by manual methods by our testing team to check the compliance of the website with WCAG 2.2 AA standard.

Updates to this page

Published 16 September 2020
Last updated 11 September 2024 + show all updates
  1. Statement updated.

  2. Statement updated.

  3. First published.

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