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Register new service.gov.uk or independent.gov.uk subdomain

The purpose of this runbook is for the registration of service.gov.uk or independent.gov.uk subdomains e.g. example.service.gov.uk or example.independent.gov.uk.

MoJ is unable to regsiter these domains so must register these via GDS Domain Team.

Pre-requisites

Before a Service Team can apply for a service.gov.uk subdomain it must have passed a Beta Assessment.

Evidence of passing the assessment must be provided with the request.

If a service has not passed Beta Assessment then a service.justice.gov.uk may be appropriate. See Register new justice.gov.uk or service.justice.gov.uk.

The above does not apply to independent.gov.uk subdomains.

As part of the process you will need to provide the following information to the GDS Domain Team as part of the request: - Service name - Short service description - Details of the Service Owner - Details of the Service Tech Lead - Details of the Team/Squad running the project - Name Servers details - AWS account number where domain is hosted - Hosted Zone ID

Create NS Records

DNS to be managed by Operations Engineering

  1. Created a new Hostedzone in AWS Route53. This is a manual step via the AWS Console. NS records created here will be needed for the registration process in the next steps.

  2. Add new Hostedzone to DNS.

DNS to be delegated to another platform

  1. If subdomain is being delegated to another platform ensure that the requester provides NS Record for where DNS will be managed e.g. Cloud Platform NS Records. This will be need for the registration process in the next steps.

Submit registration request to CDDO

  1. E-mail request for registration and delegation to GDS Domains Team at govuk-enquiries@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk. Include pre-requisite information, and evidence of service passing Beta Assessment (if appropriate).

  2. GDS Domains Team will confirm when subdomain is registered and delegated.

  3. Confirm to the Requester that the new subdomain has been registered.

After registration is complete any new DNS records for the new subdomain can be added by whoever is manageing that domain in MoJ.

This page was last reviewed on 30 June 2025. It needs to be reviewed again on 30 December 2025 by the page owner #operations-engineering-alerts .