How we use collections
Collection pages are a way of pulling together lists of links to GOV.UK web pages. You create a collections page if:
- there's a real user need to view that set of documents in one location
- there is a need that cannot be met by another format, for example topic pages or policies
Collections function as a catalogue, that helps users to explore content that must exist in one place, for example, a collection of road traffic statistics.
Collections should not be used :
- to group documents that are only linked by a common theme - in this case a topic page or policy is appropriate
- to group parts of a single document - in that case, you should add all the attachments to one publication page
Collection pages typically consist of a brief introductory text then 2 or more 'groups', each of which is given a heading and contains one or more links.
Each group contains a sentence or two explaining the nature of the content and then a series of links to GOV.UK pages. This summary text should not be too long, and many groups don't require one at all. If you need to link to non-GOV.UK pages, the short text under the group heading is the place to do it.
All the links in the list of links can only be to GOV.UK pages.
Note that these links cannot be amended in any way, they cannot be embedded in text or followed by explanatory text, or be changed from how they appear on the GOV.UK website. A collections page simply pulls through and presents the title of the live page selected. If you need to change the wording of a particular link, you do not do it on the collections page, you do it by editing the page itself.
You can have as many links as you need under any particular group heading.
Links can appear under more than one heading, if necessary.
Links can easily be re-ordered, added or deleted. To do so raise a Jira ticket to the Publishing team.
Example collection page
