Success at Government Information Group Awards

6 Oct 2021 01:36 PM

The Legislation Services and Web Archiving Teams have been awarded the Government Information Group (GIG) Annual Award, which celebrates the work of those in the KIM profession in government, for their work in tackling the twin legislation challenges of EU Exit and the pandemic.

The teams were nominated by Head of Legislation Services, Matt Bell who recently said:

“this past year has probably been the most challenging we have ever faced. The culmination of several years of preparation for EU Exit saw preparatory legislation being made, registered and published right up until 11pm on 31st December.”

The teams, led by Clare Allison, Jack Eaglesfield, Richard Hodgson, Tom Storrar, Catherine Tabone, Claire Harvey and Judith Riley have had a very busy 18 months during which they and their colleagues stepped up to respond to an increased workload with challenging deadlines, both in the context of EU Exit but then additionally for the Pandemic.

Beyond EU Exit, the government’s legislative response to the pandemic required a significant shift in the departments’ ways of working, with the publishing team registering dozens of emergency health protection regulations at weekends and late at night for the first time, and the editorial team updating the rapidly changing laws often within 24 hours of being made. This effort was necessary to meet massive public interest in this legislation, with unprecedented peaks in usage of legislation.gov.uk and an average increase of over 50% in the number of users since 2019. The Web Archiving team then worked around the clock to ensure that all official material published online during the pandemic would be archived and preserved for posterity.