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Only managing editors can unpublish or withdraw content from GOV.UK. If your managing editor is not available, contact GDS using the GOV.UK Support form.

Anyone with a Whitehall publisher account can discard drafts of content thats never been published.

Before you start, read the guidance on when to unpublish or withdraw content.

Unpublishing deletes a piece of content from GOV.UK.

To unpublish content:

1. Select the Documents tab in Whitehall publisher and search for your document.
2. Click on the document you want to unpublish.
3. Click on the Withdraw or unpublish button.
4. If you select Unpublish: published in error add an Alternative URL to avoid creating a 404 error message and write a reason in the Public explanation field. Do not redirect the page if it was published too soon and you plan to publish the page again at the same URL.
5. If you select Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page you only need to add an Alternative URL.

You can only redirect to URLs on GOV.UK. You can include Markdown in the public explanation box.

Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page and redirect to an appropriate page if youre unpublishing content that:

• contains sensitive personal data
• breaches copyright laws
• includes material that users find obscene or defamatory
• includes details of convictions - speak to your legal team to find out when it should be removed

Unpublished content will return to a draft state in Whitehall publisher. You cannot discard drafts of unpublished content.

Attachments

If you choose Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page all attachments on the document (such as HTML attachments and PDFs) will automatically redirect to the same place as the unpublished document (the Alternative URL).

Email updates

Unpublishing a publication, consultation or detailed guide will notify users who have subscribed to email updates about that page.

Withdrawing content means its still available at the same URL. You will not be able to create any new versions of the content while its withdrawn but you can edit the public explanatory text that appears on the page.

Withdrawn publications will still appear in Google search results and attachments can still be reached directly.

Before you withdraw content:

1. Remove any attachments from the document and add a statement or watermark to each attachment - for example This publication was withdrawn on 1 January 2016.
2. Add [Withdrawn] to the start of attachment titles.
3. Re-upload the attachments to the document.

You do not need to add a withdrawn message to HTML attachments. Whitehall Publisher does it automatically when you withdraw a document.

Links to the withdrawn document from within body copy will not be automatically removed from other pages.

To withdraw content:

1. Select the Documents tab in Whitehall publisher and search for your document.
2. Click on the document you want to unpublish.
3. Click on the Withdraw or unpublish button.
4. Always leave a reason in the Public explanation field explaining why youre withdrawing the document. You can include Markdown and provide users with a link to a new page or document.

The withdrawn document will still appear external search engine results but it will not appear in internal site search results. If the withdrawn document is featured on your organisation page, it will continue to be listed there until its un-featured.

A withdrawn document will not be visible in:

• document collections it is part of
• related document sections on the public site, for example, an organisations Documents section
• the list of announcements on a persons profile page
• specialist browse
• atom feeds
• govdelivery notifications

Withdrawn content will show as withdrawn in Whitehall publisher.

Closed organisations

If an organisation closes, only withdraw material thats no longer relevant. Examples of items that should not be withdrawn are:

• guidance thats still useful about things people can still do (consider reassigning this to the new organisation if there is one)
• transparency data
• freedom of information responses

How to unwithdraw content

Only managing editors can unwithdraw content, for example if a content item was withdrawn by mistake or they need to fix an error in the content.

Find the document in Whitehall publisher and select Unwithdraw. You do not need to republish the document.

If the document has attachments youll need to re-upload them. They will not appear automatically.

If youre making a change, you must withdraw the content again. This will not email subscribers or give any notification to users.

You can either reuse a previous withdrawal date and public explanation, or use a new public explanation.

You should only reuse a previous withdrawal date and public explanation if you have:

• updated file attachments to mark them withdrawn
• made a minor edit, for example fixing a broken link
• fixed an error or mistake in the content which existed when it was originally withdrawn

Find out when you can edit withdrawn content.

You should always leave a reason in the Public explanation field explaining why youre withdrawing the content.

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