GOV.UK Frontend contains the code you need to start building a user interface for government platforms and services.
See live examples of GOV.UK Frontend components, and guidance on when to use them in your service, in the GOV.UK Design System.
GOV.UK Frontend is maintained by a team at Government Digital Service. If you want to know more about GOV.UK Frontend, please email the Design System team or get in touch with them on Slack.
There are 2 ways to start using GOV.UK Frontend in your app.
Once installed, you will be able to use the code from the examples in the GOV.UK Design System in your service.
We recommend installing GOV.UK Frontend using node package manager (npm).
You can also download the compiled and minified assets (CSS, JavaScript) from GitHub.
GOV.UK Frontend supports:
- recommended browsers
- recommended assistive technologies
- Internet Explorer 8, 9 and 10, although components may not look perfect
- your users overriding colours in Windows, Firefox and Chrome
The GOV.UK Design System team works hard to ensure that GOV.UK Frontend is accessible.
Using Frontend will help your service meet level AA of WCAG 2.1. But you must still check that your service meets accessibility requirements, especially if you extend or modify components.
You should also use:
- the JavaScript from GOV.UK Frontend
- a separate stylesheet if you support Internet Explorer 8
Your service will not meet level AA of WCAG 2.1 if you use compatibility mode to use GOV.UK Frontend with old frameworks or the old colour palette.
You can also read the accessibility statement for the GOV.UK Design System.
If you get a warning from a linter or accessibility checker, check our list of issues you should not need to fix.
To be notified when there’s a new release, you can either:
- watch the govuk-frontend Github repository
- join the #govuk-design-system channel on cross-government Slack
Find out how to update with npm.
Unless stated otherwise, the codebase is released under the MIT License. This covers both the codebase and any sample code in the documentation. The documentation is © Crown copyright and available under the terms of the Open Government 3.0 licence.
If you want to help us build GOV.UK Frontend, view our contribution guidelines.