People and their roles are covered by 2 separate sections of Whitehall publisher. You need the person first, then you can assign a role to them by editing the role.
In publisher you can:
Check with the Government Digital Service (GDS) before creating a new minister.
Select People in the More tab to see a list of every person featured on GOV.UK.
Check that theres not already a page for the person using the search bar.
If theres no existing page, click Create new person.
Add a title, forename, surname, any post-nominal letters such as MBE, and a biography.
Upload an image. It must be 960 x 640 px and minimum 75 dpi. Photos on a white background need a light tint overlay.
Check with GDS before creating a ministerial role. You do not need to check with GDS before adding a new managerial role or department role.
Select Roles in the More tab to see a list of every role featured on GOV.UK.
Click Create new role to create a new role.
Add a Role title and Role type and complete as many of the other fields as possible.
Write a description of the roles responsibilities. This will appear alongside the person with this role so do not repeat content.
Save the role.
When you create or update a ministerial role, youll need to get the responsibilities section confirmed with the ministers and Number 10s private offices.
Select Roles in the More tab to see a list of every role featured on GOV.UK.
Find the role from the list and open it for editing.
Click New appointment to assign the role to a new person.
Enter a start date. The old role-holder will automatically be removed from the role on this date.
You must only assign a role to a person on or after the day they take up the role. The person will appear on your organisation page once youve assigned them to a role.
If the name of a role changes, create a new role rather than edit the existing one. Assign the person to the new role, and untag the old role from your organisation.
If a person is staying in their role but their responsibilities change, you can update the responsibilities section of the existing role.
If a role is being temporarily filled (for example, to cover someone on maternity or paternity leave) you must create a new role for an interim position.
This should have the same name as the original role but with interim at the beginning, for example, interim chief executive officer.
Do not change anything about the original role or assign it to anyone until its been permanently filled. When it has, you can also remove the person from the interim role.
There is a special workflow for making changes to the list of government ministers on GOV.UK. This page is used by the media and public as a primary source of information, so its important that these details are always accurate.
The Number 10 (Prime Ministers Office) digital communications team is responsible for the accuracy of ministerial information on GOV.UK.
When changes of ministerial responsibility are announced - for example, during a government reshuffle - the Number 10 team contacts GDS and the affected departments to:
GDS and Number 10 will usually create and assign the people and role pages. They will then contact you when you can take over responsibility for the page to add the