Frontend templates

Topical events

Topical event are used to communicate government activity about high-profile events or in response to a major crisis.

How it works

Topical events pages used to communicate government activity about high-profile events or in response to a major crisis. Can be used for an event or crisis that is:

• of high profile
• that is current or relevant only for a short time (for example Ebola virus: UK government response)
• of significance to the majority of GOV.UK’s users (ie the event is receiving extensive coverage by major news media such as the Today programme)
• the responsibility of central government
• linked to more than one government department or agency
• likely to generate a high volume of content (not just one or two news stories)

Also worth noting that there may be a corresponding topical event’s about page, which is made using the topical event about frontend template.

Live examples

• D-Day 80 (opens in a new tab)
• Election 2024 (opens in a new tab)
• Russian invasion of Ukraine: UK government response (opens in a new tab)

Complete list of examples available and page data on Content Data (opens in a new tab).

How it’s built

These are the underlying technologies that make-up the topical events front template.

Content schema

topical_event (opens in a new tab)

What is a content schema?

A GOV.UK content schema is a JSON schema that defines the data structure of a piece of content. It determines what content and metadata attributes the page has.

Content type

topical_event (opens in a new tab)

What is a content type?

Content type describes the types of pages that exist on GOV.UK. It’s stored in the content item (JSON) as document_type. It powers search filters in all finders and changes the content type label users see on GOV.UK pages.

Publishing app

whitehall (opens in a new tab)

What is a publishing app?

Publishing apps are used by publishers across government departments to publish content to GOV.UK.

Rendering app

collections (opens in a new tab)

What is a rendering app?

Rendering apps render content to GOV.UK end-users.

Components

The components used within the topical events frontend template

Component	Source	Publishing app input field(s)
Layout super navigation header	Autogenerated in frontend template
Breadcrumbs	Autogenerated in frontend template
Section break	Autogenerated in frontend template
Heading	Autogenerated in frontend template
Subscription links	Autogenerated in frontend template
Feedback	Autogenerated in frontend template
Layout footer	Autogenerated in frontend template
Page title	Customized by publisher	Name (required)
Lead paragraph	Customized by publisher	Summary (required)
Govspeak content	Customized by publisher	Description (required)
Metadata block	Customized by publisher	Organisation
Share links	Customized by publisher	Social media accounts
Image card	Customized by publisher	Currently featured
Document list	Customized by publisher	Documents
Organisation logo - only appears if lead organisation	Customized by publisher	Organisation

History and insights

Date	Description	Document	Format
January 2023	Mural board with a collection of findings regarding Topical Events and Campaign sites	Research interview about Topical Events & Campaign sites (opens in a new tab)	Mural board

How to report an issue

If you happen to come across an issue:

1. Report it on Github (opens in a new tab).
2. Once the issue has been added, update this document by adding the title and Github Issue’s link.
3. Give yourself a high-five.

Help improve this page

To help make sure that this page is useful, relevant and up to date, submit a GitHub issue (opens in a new tab) with your proposed updates.