Service availability and service issues
How to design using this pattern
Document type
Publication: guidance (with an HTML attachment)
Publication
Title
The title should be ‘[Service name]: service availability and issues’.
For example, ‘Corporation Tax: service availability and issues’.
Summary
The summary should be ‘Check the availability and any issues affecting the [service name] service.’
For example, ‘Check the availability and any issues affecting the Corporation Tax online service.’
Body
The body text should say ‘Latest updates on the availability and any issues affecting the [service name] service.’
For example, ‘Latest updates on the availability and any issues affecting the Corporation Tax online service.’
HTML attachment
Title
Use a different title to what you have used for the landing page. The titles can be similar but cannot be exactly the same.
For example, ‘Corporation Tax — service availability and issues’.
Body
## Service availability
Full service available.
Sign in to [insert service name] (add the url)
## Planned downtime
None.
## Service issues
None.
## Other services
Check [availability and issues](https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-service-availability-and-issues) for other services.
Use a call to action box if there is planned downtime or service issues.
Do not use ‘midnight’, use ‘11:59pm’,
$CTA
Sunday 26 September 2021 11:59pm to 3am Monday 27 September 2021
$CTA
Due to scheduled maintenance you will be unable to access our online service from 11:59pm on Sunday 26 September 2021 to 3am on Monday 27 April 2021.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Public change note
Service availability
Examples:
- The agent services account is currently unavailable. Check the service availability page for updates.
- This service will be unavailable from 10pm on Thursday 14 October to 2am on Friday 15 October 2021.
No public change note is needed when removing a service availability message.
Planned downtime
Example: Planned downtime from 5pm on Friday 17 December 2021 to 9am Monday 20 December 2021 has been added.
No public change note is needed when removing a planned downtime message.
Service issues
Example when you add an issue: A service issue about accessing the Making Tax Digital service has been added.
Include a public change note when removing a service issues message, for example: The service issue about submitting Report of Receipt (ROR) messages to EMCS using the HMRC Portal has now been resolved.
Scheduled publication time
You only need to put in a scheduled publication time for the removal of a message, not for the addition.
Collection page
Add the URL of any new page to the HMRC service availability and issues collection. Do not create a public change note.