Use mandated central services
All government services must use the functionality of mandated central services: GOV.UK Notify and GOV.UK Pay.
To meet this commitment as part of Digital and Data function’s strategic commitments your plans must show how you will use central services.
If you are at the start of a discovery then you only need to commit to meeting this commitment in future phases of delivery.
Providing notifications
If your service is going to include sending notifications to users including by email, post and SMS, you must use the GOV.UK Notify service for this functionality.
Collecting payments
If your service includes collecting payments from users, you must use the GOV.UK Pay service. The only exception is if you are taking payments by Direct Debit.
These commitments do not apply if there are technical reasons that prevent your service from using these central services, but you will need to explain these reasons as part of your spend request.
If you’re going through the spend control process you must explain how you’re meeting this commitment if your spend request has been rated high on the risk and importance framework or has an assurance rating of control.
Answering ‘no’ will not lead to an automatic rejection and you will need to explain why your spend cannot align to the commitment.