Apply for a deceased person’s military record (Request A Service Record) beta reassessment report
MOD's Apply for a deceased person’s military record (Request A Service Record) beta reassessment on the 26/01/21
Digital Service Standard assessment report
Apply for a deceased person’s military record (Previously: Request A Service Record)
| From: | Central Digital and Data Office |
| Assessment date: | 26/01/21 |
| Stage: | Beta Reassessment |
| Result: | Met |
| Service provider: | MOD |
Previous assessment reports
- Alpha assessment report: 7th August 2017, MOD Internal Assessment, Met
- Beta assessment report: 5th March 2020, GDS Assessment, Not Met
- Beta reassessment report, 21st Oct 2020, GDS assessment, Not Met
Service description
MOD holds approximately 10 million archived service records containing information on people who served in the armed forces from 1780 to 1960. The records are due to be transferred to the National Archives. Whilst held by MOD, access to them for members of the public is provided under Freedom of Information Legislation. The current service provides a set of downloadable forms which can be completed and sent by post to the service disclosure branches (Army, Navy and RAF) and requires payment by cheque of the £30 administration fee. The service currently receives around 30,000 requests per annum.
On receipt of a request, the disclosure branch logs the request and conducts a search for the record based on the details given. When the record is found, it is copied, redacted as required and sent to the requestor, completing the transaction. Private beta for the new service commenced in May 2019 with key aims of improving user journeys by removing the need to post forms and payment.
Service users
Users fall into two key groups:
- family members – users range from those just starting their journey in family history research or making a one-off request ‘I want my grandfather’s service record’ to those who are experienced and enthusiastic family history researchers familiar with the numerous official channels and processes involved e.g. findmypast.com, ancestry.com, local records offices, national archives
- genealogists - professional family history researchers and historians also use the service. Genealogists and family history researchers often work on behalf of others and request multiple records associated with a family/name. Military historians and historical researchers may be looking for details of members of a troop or regiment and again may request multiple records at one time
10. Test the end-to-end service
Decision
The service met point 10 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- the team has acted on all recommendations from the previous report
- all issues identified by the external accessibility audit have been addressed promptly and the service has been re-assessed as conforming to the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standard
- the build process ensures that the latest version of the GDS Design System is always in use
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue to monitor performance and usage of the live service
- continue to keep all software dependencies updated
13. Make the user experience consistent with GOV.UK
Decision
The service met point 13 of the Standard.
What the team has done well
The panel was impressed that:
- an external accessibility audit was carried out in November which raised a few issues. The service team made all of the improvements recommended and have done a follow up audit in January which contained no issues and met the WCAG 2.1 standard
- the service uses the latest version of the GOV.UK frontend as recommended in the last assessment and the service team have put in place a way to keep the service up to date with any CSS changes made to the frontend library.
- favicon and page titles are consistent (including error page titles) with no issues identified
- service name has been reviewed, tested and updated
- an independent content review was done and those changes were tested and implemented. The service team also worked with a content designer from the digital Cabinet Office on the service name and other areas of the service
- the 419 error page has been improved and is consistent with other GOV.UK services providing the user a clear explanation of what has gone wrong and what to do next
- the “leave now” button has been changed to “cancel application” which has been successfully tested with users and implemented across all pages
- all inconsistencies have been fixed
- user research has happened and the overall process of service design seems to be much improved since last assessment. Overall it is really encouraging to see the progression made in the methodology and practice of service design and user research and hope that this continues for other services
What the team needs to explore
Before their next assessment, the team needs to:
- continue what you are doing in terms of your approach to service improvements. It will be good to see what changes have been made based on live service feedback and analytics