The UK government on Twitter
Dave Cole has done something that was crying out to be done. He has taken all of the (hard to find) RSS feeds for government press releases from COI’s News Distribution Service and piped them into Twitter accounts. Nice.
To my mind though there’s no substitute for a proper, human-edited Twitter account and so I thought I’d share this list of official gov accounts which I’ve compiled fairly recently. Let me know any I’ve missed.
Government
- 10 Downing Street @downingstreet
- BERR/DCMS @digitalbritain
- Cabinet Office @cabinetoffice
- CLG @communitiesUK
- COI @COIgovuk
- DCSF @dcsfgovuk
- DFID @dfid_uk
- DIUS @diusgovuk / @DIUS_Unis / @DIUS_Skills / @DIUS_Science / @ScienceSoWhat
- EHRC @ehrc
- CRC @crc_uk
- FCO @foreignoffice
- HMT @hmtreasury
- MOJ @justiceuk
- Ofcom @ofcom
- UKTI @UKTI
Parliament
- Parliament @ukparliament
Major government websites:
- Direct.gov.uk @directov
- Businesslink.gov.uk @businesslink
- NHS Choices @nhschoices
It’s likely there will be lots of crossover between Dave’s NDS-fuelled feeds and these civil servant powered accounts, so choose wisely which to follow. The human-edited tweets will offer more than just press releases but they might also be selective about the news they deem tweet-worthy.
If this sort of thing floats your boat you’ll probably also be interested to know about Justin’s excellent @HMGov news aggregator, Harry’s one for consultations, and a sack load of potential for yet more Twitter automation in the government feeds detailed here.
Related stuff:
- UK journalists on Twitter
- 51 MPs (and counting!) tracked on Tweetminster
- 86 local authorities (and counting!) and @mayoroflondon
- @UKLabour, @Conservatives and @libdems
- Dave Briggs’s list of the UK Gov Web Twitterverse
- Bearing Point’s list of USA and international government Twitter use
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Comments
Actually it has a few, but I can’t remember what they are 
– neither can they probably as I set them up!
I don’t know if you want to include agencies as well, but we have a human-powered twitter account at the Commission for Rural Communities – @CRC_UK
I
Ahem. Parliament? Government? You may find our first ever tweet helpful: http://twitter.com/ukparliament/status/86805632
But it’s great to be mentioned
DIUS also has @ScienceSoWhat – supporting a DIUS campaign.
And there’s @cabinetoffice and @dcsfgovuk which I think are hoo-mins too.
Thanks gang. I’ve updated the main post to add the ones you’ve mentioned and also @hmtreasury (source of the best up to the minute coverage during last week’s budget) and @digitalbritain – which I really ought to have included, given that I’ve had quite a lot to do with it.
I know of at least two other corporate Twitter accounts in the offing for central gov Depts and will add them too in due course.
@Alistair – not sure the distinction matters in this context (ways to get live updates about government business) but you’re right to correct me! You now have your very own sub-heading.
[...] with the latest announcements. There are helpful pointers to the government’s presence on Twitter here. The importance placed on these communication channels will inevitably grow over time, but if [...]
[...] Neil’s blog post is here on UK government on twitter http://neilojwilliams.net/missioncreep/2009/the-uk-government-on-twitter/ [...]
The main Ministry of Justice Twitter feed is @mojwebteam.
@justiceuk is the Twitter feed for the discussion on ‘rights and responsibilities’ and constitutional reform (http://governance.justice.gov.uk/).
Buidling Britain’s future have just started one up @buildbritfuture. Not sure if it is part of any one department.
The role will certainly be interesting and challenging for whoever fills it, especially as the job ahead will take patience and understanding in helping people such as the right honorable Philip Davies understand exactly whats going on and the benefits of using these tools. Wake up folks, a soft revolution is occurring and you don’t even seem to be aware that its going on.
The guide,from the government is actually quite an interesting read. Besides giving a clear cut explanation of what Twitter is and how (and why) the UK government should go about using it, it enumerates a number of third party tools.
Great to see the social media majorly used by the politicians. Hope this helps facilitate better dialogue.
I see UK Government is actively participating on Twitter. I wish Indian Government atleast update their websites.
Hi Neil,
We’ve just updated the MoJ Twitter accounts.. making them a bit more visually related to each other..
We’re at:
@mojGovUK
@@moj_rights
@@moj_EandDPortal
[...] många andra stater (Engelska försök) försöker det offentliga Sverige att vara en del av web2.0 (några exempel webbrådgivaren & [...]
The Crown Prosecution Service Twitter account is here:
We tweet new jobs, local and national press releases and new public consultations.
Hello, I'm Neil Williams. I'm a government web geek, a dad, a husband, a grower of veg, a keeper of hens and a lapsed comedy writer, roughly in that order. 
MoJ has one: @JusticeUK