A tool to make form-filling faster and simpler will be rolled out across all government departments following successful trials, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology has announced.
GOV.UK Forms provides a platform for civil servants to create and manage secure, accessible forms online – instead of “clunky PDFs or lengthy paperwork”, the department said.
DSIT said trials found the tool provided “major time savings and improved efficiency”, with staff in organisations trialling the system saving an estimated two years in processing time since testing began in September 2022.
Christine Bellamy, chief executive of the Government Digital Service, said the platform “enables people running government services to create online forms in minutes, without the need for coding or design skills”.
Feryal Clark, the minister for AI and digital government, said GOV.UK Forms will “not only modernise how the public interacts with us” but also enable departments “to focus resources on improving public services – rather than administrative tasks”.
Clark is set to unveil the full rollout of GOV.UK Forms today at the Digital Nations Ministerial Summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.
More than 1,200 civil servants have used the platform so far, with 87 forms made live.
In its private beta and early access phases, the tool has been used to speed up registration for compensation for more than 300 sub-postmasters affected by the Horizon IT scandal by removing the need for lengthy paperwork, print-outs and administrative hurdles. Forms created on the system took less than five minutes to complete.
It has also been used by the public to register XL Bully dogs and to recruit over 400 new volunteer coastguards. And it has helped over 20,000 armed forces personal to apply for veteran badges.
The platform, forms.service.gov.uk, has entered the ‘public beta’ testing phase, meaning it is accessible civil servants in all central government departments and agencies.