GovWire

Unpublishing deletes a piece of content from GOV.UK.

To unpublish content:

1. Select the Documents tab in Whitehall publisher and search for your document.
2. Click on the document you want to unpublish.
3. Click on the Withdraw or unpublish button.
4. If you select Unpublish: published in error add an Alternative URL to avoid creating a 404 error message and write a reason in the Public explanation field. Do not redirect the page if it was published too soon and you plan to publish the page again at the same URL.
5. If you select Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page you only need to add an Alternative URL.

You can only redirect to URLs on GOV.UK. You can include Markdown in the public explanation box.

Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page and redirect to an appropriate page if youre unpublishing content that:

• contains sensitive personal data
• breaches copyright laws
• includes material that users find obscene or defamatory
• includes details of convictions - speak to your legal team to find out when it should be removed

Unpublished content will return to a draft state in Whitehall publisher. You cannot discard drafts of unpublished content.

Attachments

If you choose Unpublish: consolidated into another GOV.UK page all attachments on the document (such as HTML attachments and PDFs) will automatically redirect to the same place as the unpublished document (the Alternative URL).

Email updates

Unpublishing a publication, consultation or detailed guide will notify users who have subscribed to email updates about that page.

Withdrawing content means its still available at the same URL. You will not be able to create any new versions of the content while its withdrawn but you can edit the public explanatory text that appears on the page.

Links to the withdrawn document in the content of other pages will not be automatically removed from other pages.

Withdrawn content will show as withdrawn in the state field in Whitehall publisher.

Where withdrawn content will appear

A withdrawn document will still appear in Google search results and attachments can still be reached directly from Google. The document will not appear in internal site search results.

If the withdrawn document is featured on your organisation page, it will continue to be listed there until its un-featured.

A withdrawn document will not be visible in:

• document collections it is part of
• the list of announcements on a persons profile page
• specialist browse
• govdelivery notifications

If the document has non-HTML attachments, you first need to:

1. Select the Documents tab in Whitehall publisher then find and click on your document.
2. Create a new version of the document to edit.
3. In the Attachments tab, delete any attachments from the document (youll need to edit them, so download them first if you need to).
4. Edit each attachment to add a statement or watermark - for example This publication was withdrawn on 1 January 2020 - and add [Withdrawn] to the start of file titles when you save them.
5. Re-upload the attachments to the document. When filling in the attachment details, put [Withdrawn] at the start of the title.
6. Republish the document. In the What sort of change are you making? box, select that its Fixing a typo or broken link, a style change or similar so that users signed up to email alerts are not notified at this stage.

You do not need to add a withdrawn message to HTML attachments or delete and reupload them. Whitehall Publisher does it automatically when you withdraw a document.

To withdraw the document:

1. Select the Documents tab in Whitehall publisher then find and click on your document.
2. Click on the Withdraw or unpublish button - its the red button above the check for broken links box.
3. Select Withdraw: no longer current government policy/activity.
4. Write a reason in the Public explanation field explaining why youre withdrawing the document. You can include Markdown and provide users with a link to a new page or document.

Here are some examples of what you can put in the Public explanation field.

If a scheme, programme or fund closes

You cannot apply for this [scheme, programme, fund] anymore. It has been replaced by [name and link to scheme].

If its out of date content

If theres guidance thats related to the page being withdrawn: This page has been withdrawn because its out of date. You can read about [X or Y] at [name and link to new guidance].

If theres a direct replacement at a new URL: This page has been replaced by a newer version. Go to: [link].

If its an old news story or press release

This news article has been withdrawn because its over [x] years old.

Theres more guidance on withdrawing old content.

Only withdraw pages that are no longer relevant. Examples of items that should not be withdrawn are:

• guidance thats still useful about things people can still do (consider retagging this to the new organisation if there is one)
• transparency data
• freedom of information responses

Only managing editors can unwithdraw content, for example if a content item was withdrawn by mistake or they need to fix an error in the content.

Find the document in Whitehal

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