About
About the Office
We run the shared platforms the Commonwealth's public services are built on, set the standard those services are held to, and help departments meet it.
What we do
A non-ministerial department of the Commonwealth, accountable to Parliament.
The Office of Digital Services is a non-ministerial department of the Commonwealth. We were created in 2016 to end a decade of departments each building the same thing — a sign-in page, a payment page, a way to send a letter — slightly differently, and slightly worse, than the department next door.
Today, 214 public services across 31 departments and 48 local authorities run on platforms we operate. Every one of them is assessed against the Commonwealth Service Standard before it is allowed to call itself live, and the results of those assessments are published.
We are not a consultancy and we do not build services on behalf of other departments. We build the parts every service needs, we write the standard, and we say plainly when a service is not good enough yet.
How we work
Four commitments that decide what the Office builds and what it refuses to.
- Start with the person, not the department
- Services are organised around what someone is trying to do. If a task spans four departments, that is our problem to solve, not theirs.
- Publish the standard, then meet it
- The Service Standard, our assessment results, and our own performance data are public. A standard nobody can check is not a standard.
- Accessible or not finished
- A service that excludes people is not a working service. Accessibility is assessed at every stage, not audited once before launch.
- Build once, carefully
- Shared platforms concentrate the cost of getting something right. We would rather run five things well than fifty adequately.
How the Office came to exist
A decade of decisions, in the order they were made.
- 2016
The Office is established
Created as a non-ministerial department following the Public Services (Digital) Act, with a remit covering shared platforms and service standards.
- 2018
The first Service Standard is published
Version 1.0 set out eleven points every new public service had to meet before launch. Assessment was voluntary for the first year.
- 2020
Commonwealth ID replaces departmental sign-in
A single verified account replaced 27 separate departmental log-ins. Nine hundred thousand accounts were created in the first six months.
- 2022
Assessment becomes mandatory
Every service handling more than 10,000 transactions a year must pass assessment before launch, and be reassessed every three years.
- 2024
Accessibility and Inclusion becomes a directorate
Accessibility work moved out of the assurance team into a directorate of its own, with its own audit programme and budget.
- 2026
Service Standard 3.0
The standard was rewritten around fourteen points, adding explicit requirements for offline routes, data minimisation, and service retirement.
Who leads the Office
The Chief Executive and the five directors accountable for our platforms, standards, and spending.
Marcus Ilesanmi-Hart
Chief Executive
Joined the Office in 2021 after eight years running service delivery at the Commonwealth Revenue Board. Accountable to Parliament for the Office's platforms, standards, and spending.
Amara Delcourt
Director of Digital Identity and Access
Led the Commonwealth ID programme from its first prototype in 2019. Previously a security engineer in the Office's platform team.
Ronan Feaverley
Director of Service Standards and Assurance
Chairs the assessment panel and owns the Commonwealth Service Standard. Has assessed more than 300 public services since 2018.
Priya Vantell
Director of Platforms and Engineering
Responsible for Notify, Pay, and Hosting, and for the Office's uptime commitments. Joined from the Braewick regional health authority in 2020.
Tomas Okonjo-Reid
Director of Accessibility and Inclusion
Set up the Office's audit programme and the assisted digital route that supports people who cannot complete a service online.
Helena Marchetti
Director of Data, Privacy and Records
Oversees the Office's data protection obligations, the public records service, and the Commonwealth open data catalogue.
How the Office is organised
Five directorates, each accountable for a defined part of the Office's remit.
Digital Identity and Access
Runs Commonwealth ID, the single verified account people use to sign in to public services, and sets the rules for how services check who someone is.
Service Standards and Assurance
Owns the Commonwealth Service Standard, runs the assessment panel every public service must pass before launch, and publishes the results.
Platforms and Engineering
Builds and operates the shared platforms public services run on — Notify, Pay, and Hosting — and is accountable for their availability.
Accessibility and Inclusion
Audits public services against the Commonwealth accessibility requirements and runs the assisted digital route for people who cannot use a service online.
Data, Privacy and Records
Looks after the information the Commonwealth holds about people, runs the public records service, and publishes the open data catalogue.
Common questions
The questions the Office is asked most often, answered in full.
- Do I need a Commonwealth ID to use every public service?
- No. You only need an account for services that have to know who you are — checking your own records, for example. Information and guidance pages are open to everyone, and services that do not identify you will not ask you to sign in.
- What happens if I cannot complete a service online?
- Every service on our platforms has an assisted digital route. Call 0300 456 1188 and someone will complete the service with you over the phone, or arrange an appointment at one of our three offices.
- Who decides whether a service meets the Service Standard?
- An independent assessment panel chaired by the Director of Service Standards and Assurance. Panels include an accessibility specialist and at least one assessor from outside the Office. Results are published on this site whether a service passes or not.
- Can my department use Office platforms without an assessment?
- You can build and test against Notify, Pay, and Hosting from day one. You need a passed assessment before the service goes live to the public, not before you start.
- How do I report a problem with the accessibility of this site?
- Email accessibility@digital.commonwealth.example with the page address and what went wrong. We aim to reply within 5 working days and publish outstanding issues in our accessibility statement.
About this website
Commonwealth Office of Digital Services does not exist. This website is a HubZero Blueprint — a reference implementation of a Government information architecture in the Minimal design language, built to demonstrate how HubZero approaches public-sector digital services.
Every organisation, person, service, statistic, publication, address, and telephone number on this site is fictional and was written for this demonstration. Nothing here is derived from a real government body.