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I’ve had very little middle ground in my experience with gov.uk. It’s either been exceptionally useful in the case of student finance, the electoral roll, conta

I’ve had very little middle ground in my experience with gov.uk. It’s either been exceptionally useful in the case of student finance, the electoral roll, contacting local councils and so on - the sections of the site with highly focussed reasons for landing there - or extremely bad in other cases. For example, earlier this week I was looking for guidance on what responsibilities Unincorporated Associations have to HMRC. The site is pretty much barren, and feels like a link dump with little explanation for what anything is. And because Gov.UK has wedged itself in front of the old HMRC site, half of the URLS plastered around the net redirect to a gov.uk index page instead of letting me view old content. One specific example that caught me out was a page for finding your local HMRC branch. It existed on the old site, but that URL now redirects to a generic `contact us` page for the entirety of HMRC. (See http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/local/individuals/index.htm http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/local/individuals/index.htm)

dazc 12y ago
I recently renewed my passport and the process was reasonably impressive. However, I also completed my tax return at the same time and found the same jumbled mess as described above.
- jdswain 12y ago
  I applied for a passport online, which all went well at the time, but yesterday I got a letter from them saying that I didn't fill out all the information (on a web form?). Included with the letter was a paper application form which, as far as I can tell, I need to fill out completely, basically starting again. And it's kind of difficult as I've sent all the original documentation with the first application so I don't have all the details at hand.
  - justincormack 12y ago
    The passport application is really odd, it is still essentially a paper based process, with a fake web frontend that basically just prints out paperwork.
    - gmac 12y ago
      Yes. I wonder if there's old legislation somewhere that mandates the form a passport application will take, and they've gone as far as they can without changing the legislation itself?
      - justincormack 12y ago
        Perhaps. Thats why government digital policy needs to be joined up end to end, ie can make legislation to fix dev issues.
    - UnoriginalGuy 12y ago
      That was my experience. 1) Fill out web-form 2) They print it for you and mail it to you 3) You sign it. 4) You do the Post Office's "Check and Send" which is pointless. 5) You eventually get a passport. It is from the dark ages.
    - Lawtonfogle 12y ago
      I've seen this design before and the reasoning is that your physical signature is needed per policy (at least in the areas of US law I've worked in). We can only replace a physical signature with a two-factor authentication, and you can imagine the nightmare that is to set up in a way that is any bit usable to the general public.
  - dazc 12y ago
    For me it was just a renewal, so the form is essentially a tick box. The only complication is that you need to send a new photo. I can imagine an application for a new passport is going to be a lot more complicated.
jdswain 12y ago
I was looking at that Contact Us page yesterday. 126 items and I couldn't find the one that I needed, and there's no general number to call as far as I could see. Had to scroll through all 126 items and still didn't find anything that was relevant.

dazc 12y ago

I recently renewed my passport and the process was reasonably impressive. However, I also completed my tax return at the same time and found the same jumbled mess as described above.

jdswain 12y ago
I applied for a passport online, which all went well at the time, but yesterday I got a letter from them saying that I didn't fill out all the information (on a web form?). Included with the letter was a paper application form which, as far as I can tell, I need to fill out completely, basically starting again. And it's kind of difficult as I've sent all the original documentation with the first application so I don't have all the details at hand.
- justincormack 12y ago
  The passport application is really odd, it is still essentially a paper based process, with a fake web frontend that basically just prints out paperwork.
  - gmac 12y ago
    Yes. I wonder if there's old legislation somewhere that mandates the form a passport application will take, and they've gone as far as they can without changing the legislation itself?
    - justincormack 12y ago
      Perhaps. Thats why government digital policy needs to be joined up end to end, ie can make legislation to fix dev issues.
  - UnoriginalGuy 12y ago
    That was my experience. 1) Fill out web-form 2) They print it for you and mail it to you 3) You sign it. 4) You do the Post Office's "Check and Send" which is pointless. 5) You eventually get a passport. It is from the dark ages.
  - Lawtonfogle 12y ago
    I've seen this design before and the reasoning is that your physical signature is needed per policy (at least in the areas of US law I've worked in). We can only replace a physical signature with a two-factor authentication, and you can imagine the nightmare that is to set up in a way that is any bit usable to the general public.
- dazc 12y ago
  For me it was just a renewal, so the form is essentially a tick box. The only complication is that you need to send a new photo. I can imagine an application for a new passport is going to be a lot more complicated.

jdswain 12y ago

I was looking at that Contact Us page yesterday. 126 items and I couldn't find the one that I needed, and there's no general number to call as far as I could see. Had to scroll through all 126 items and still didn't find anything that was relevant.