Funding: 1000 eligible councils will receive a discount of £100 +VAT to offset the initial costs of setting up a new .gov.uk domain in this financial year. It is extremely unlikely that this funding will be available in future years. Funding is offered on a first-come-first-served, once per council basis; to date more than 280 councils have taken advantage of this
Step-by-step support: You’ll have access to useful, easy-to-use guides – including templates, checklists and good practice advice – to help you at each stage. Virtual workshops and drop-in sessions are also available for clerks, councillors and council staff alike
Technical hand-holding: From managing the registration of your domain, to actively supporting device, service and email set-up there’s an Approved Registrar ready to help with the most technical aspects of the move to a .gov.uk domain
Flexibility: If you’re happy with your current website or email provider there’s no reason for you to change – your Approved Registrar can work with them to make the connection to your new .gov.uk domain
The Parish Council Domains Helper Service is offering a wide range of support to all councils moving over to a .gov.uk domain in the financial year 2024-25. If you’re interested in finding out more please contact parish-helper@domains.gov.uk.
Authors: Khidr Suleman, Sandra Lowe – Parish Council Domains Helper Service, Cabinet Office
We encourage councils to consider switching to a gov.uk domain if you haven’t already, and now is a great time to consider that move for the reasons above. Please note that the wording in the Practitioners Guide 2024, which represents best financial practice in the sector as required by the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2015, has been strengthened from previous years. It now advises gov.uk domains as being a sign of good professional practice:
5.210. All Parish, Town and Community Councils are eligible to use, and are advised to use, a .gov.uk domain for their websites and email communications. Your community, suppliers and partners will now reasonably expect a local council to have a .gov.uk domain name. Note that Parish meetings are exempt from the requirement to have a website.
5.211. To assist with compliance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), it is advised that clerks provide official .gov.uk email accounts to their councillors, which must only be used for official council business.
5.212. When choosing a domain name all councils must follow the rules set out by the Cabinet Office to choose a .gov.uk domain name, for example, ‘ourparishcouncil.gov.uk’ with email addresses linked to that domain.
5.213. Using a .gov.uk domain for your council website and email accounts gives Parish Councils the following advantages:
5.214. Increased professionalism and trust from members of your community, partners and suppliers because your email address and website domains are a trusted government brand.
5.215. Separation of your personal life from your professional life, ensuring members of your community, partners and suppliers understand what capacity you are emailing them in – whether a Councillor or Clerk.
5.216. Increased control for the Responsible Officer over email accounts and documentation when managing new joiners, leavers, sudden absences or Freedom of Information and Subject Access Requests.
5.217. Peace of mind that your .gov.uk Parish Council domain will never be sold to someone else if it is not renewed on time, which can happen with .co.uk, .org.uk and other commercial domains.
5.218. Additional security measures, as all .gov.uk domains are checked for any cyber vulnerabilities by the Cabinet Office and reported to the Responsible Owner, or your technical point of contact, so they can be fixed.
5.219. You can read more about the benefits of getting a .gov.uk domain on the GOV.UK website.
We are working with the Parish Council Domains Helper Service to run some events for our members; these will be announced in our e-bulletin when they are available for booking.
This is first in a series of blogs from the Parish Council Domains Helper Service, the upcoming blogs in the series include:
All clerks are invited to join this FREE networking session to find out more about moving to a gov.uk domain.
24 June, 10 – 11am
Councillors are invited to join this FREE networking event to find out more about moving to a gov.uk domain.
2 July, 12 – 1pm