Over the next few weeks we will be moving our information and services over to GOV.UK, the single government website. You can find out more about GOV.UK and how it will make it easier to find the information and services you need at https://www.gov.uk/movingtogovuk
What this means for you
Our new web address will be www.gov.uk/ofqual - you can start using this now or you can keep using our current site until we have completely moved across.
Our content will be moving over to GOV.UK gradually over the next few weeks. When we move content any bookmarks or links you have to ofqual.gov.uk will take you to the new content on GOV.UK. Where we have decided to not move content you will be taken to a copy of the content stored by the National Archives.
We will regularly update you via our news section to show what is moving over and roughly when it will happen. We won't be able to give exact dates for when content will move across.
Why we are moving
One of the big selling points of GOV.UK is the aim that it will put your needs first. We hope that it will be easier for you to find information that is relevant to you. We will now have the support of a large team of experts in the Government Digital Service to help us make sure we are giving you the best possible experience.
If you are concerned that moving our website to GOV.UK makes us less independent, you needn't be.
We are still as independent as we have always been and our website moving to GOV.UK doesn't affect the work we do or the way we will do it.
Building our new website to give you what you need
When we redesigned our current website in 2012 we designed what would be on it based on the needs of everyone who uses our website (and there's an excellent blog post on user needs from the GOV.UK team and what this means in practice). We wanted to make it easy for you to find what you need when you need it; but there is always room for improvement.
We've been working with the team at GOV.UK to identify what the user needs are for the Ofqual website and how we create content that answers those needs concisely, accurately and in a way that is easy to understand.
In some cases our content will move across and, apart from a change in appearance, will work in much the same way. The pages detailing the different regulations for each qualification type are likely to be structured in a very similar way on GOV.UK as they are now.
In other cases we have identified that we can do a better job of presenting our information to help you find what you need. In these cases we will be rewriting our content to make it more useful.
Some of our content will move to GOV.UK but won't live at www.gov.uk/ofqual. In some cases, if we were to move our content across as it is, there would be two pages on GOV.UK about the same subject. Because this would be confusing, in those cases we will work with the GOV.UK team and other government departments to make sure the information you need is added to the pages already on GOV.UK.
It's always improving
One of the good things about the GOV.UK website is that it is never finished. The GOV.UK team, and the digital team here at Ofqual, will keep working on the site to make sure it meets your needs. One of the best ways for us to make sure it meets your needs is for you to tell us when something isn't right so that we can act on it.
At the bottom of every page on GOV.UK is a link:
If you're having problems finding the information you need, click on the link at the bottom of the page on GOV.UK and let us know so that we can fix it.
Philip McAllister
Digital Manager
2 comments
Comment by Bill Petri posted on
I get hugh amounts of spam from ---.ofqual.gov.uk about time you corrected that situation.
I believe many others in the USA are being spammed and possibly getting malware from this address, the government in the UK shares responsibility for this mess it's internet sites will soon lose credibility if this is not fixed.
Comment by phil posted on
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your comment and sorry to hear that you’re having issues with spam that appears to come from us. Last week we became aware that a spammer was sending a large amount of spam that was pretending to be from one of our email addresses.
The spammer has not compromised our servers or our data and we have been working hard to try and limit the impact for anyone receiving these emails. We made some technical changes at the end of last week that should help these fake emails be caught by spam filters or deleted before they get to you.