Request categories
The request form asks you to choose one of four categories: Access, Connectivity, Standards and Other. The category decides which questions the form asks, which team of the Support Service examines the request first, and which of the published response times the reply is measured against. A request made by email need not name a category; the registry team assigns one on receipt and the acknowledgement tells you which.
The categories are deliberately few. They are drawn so that almost every request the Service receives falls plainly into one of them, and so that the questions asked for each are the questions the Service would otherwise have to write back and ask. Choosing the wrong category is not a fault. The Service moves the request to the right one without issuing a new reference number and without restarting the clock; but it can cost a working day, and this page is intended to save it.
What each category covers. The four categories, the team that examines each and the matters that belong elsewhere.
- Access
- Accounts on the shared services of the Network: obtaining access, restoring access that has been lost or has expired, extending an account to a further service, and problems signing in. Access requests are answered by the response team of the Service. Where the account is held by the Identity Service the request is referred there. Creating or closing an account for a member of staff at an organisation that has an administrator is not an Access request; it is the administrator's work.
- Connectivity
- Loss of a shared service, a service that is working badly enough to prevent normal use, and any outage that is not listed as planned maintenance by the Status Service. Connectivity requests are answered by the response team, which groups reports of the same fault into one incident, tells the office that operates the service and keeps those who reported it informed until the service is restored.
- Standards
- The interpretation of a published interoperability standard, certification against a standard and the use of compatibility marks. The Service does not answer Standards requests. Every one is referred to the Standards Office within one working day, and the Standards Office replies to you directly. The form asks for the number or title of the standard because the Standards Office files referrals by standard and returns those that lack it.
- Other
- Everything that is not access, connectivity or standards: membership matters, which are referred to the Registry; press enquiries; the accessibility of this website; complaints about the Service; and general questions about the shared services or the offices of the Network. Other requests are examined by the referrals team, which either answers them within ten working days or places them with the office responsible within one.
What the form asks
| Category | Question | Required | Why it is asked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | System | Yes | The Service must know which service the account is on before it can act, and before it can tell whether the request is one for the Identity Service. |
| Access | Account email | Yes | Accounts are registered to an email address at a member organisation. The Service checks the address against the organisation's registry entry before acting. |
| Connectivity | Site | Yes | Reports are grouped by site, so that reports of one fault from many people are handled as one incident and answered together. |
| Connectivity | Since when | Yes | The time the loss began is compared with the maintenance notices of the Status Service and with the times given in other reports of the same fault. |
| Standards | Standard | Yes | The Standards Office files referrals by standard. A referral that does not identify the standard is returned to the Service and delays the reply. |
| Standards | Question | Yes | The question is passed to the Standards Office exactly as written. The Service does not summarise or interpret it. |
| Other | Subject | Yes | The subject decides which office the request is placed with, and whether it is a matter the Service can answer itself. |
Every category also asks for your email address, to which the acknowledgement and any reply are sent, and for the details of the request in your own words, including anything you have already tried. The answers to the category questions are recorded in the register with the request and are passed, unaltered, to any office the request is referred to; what the register records is set out under Reference numbers and the register.
Choosing a category
Most requests choose their own category. The cases below are those in which people most often hesitate, or in which the right course is not to write to the Service at all.
| If your request is about | Choose | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Signing in fails for one person | Access | Where your organisation has an administrator, ask them first; the Service acts where it has none |
| Signing in fails for everyone at a site | Connectivity | One report for the site, from the administrator where possible |
| A service is available but too slow to use | Connectivity | Say what is slow and since when; a degraded service is treated as an outage of lower class |
| A shared service is listed for maintenance today | None; see the notice from the Status Service | A request about listed maintenance is closed with a reference to the notice |
| A colleague has left and their account is still open | None; write to your administrator | The Service does not close accounts on request |
| Whether a product or an interface meets a standard | Standards | Referred to the Standards Office; the Service cannot certify anything |
| How an organisation becomes a member | Other | Referred to the Registry, which alone accepts applications |
| A mistake or a barrier on this website | Other | Give the page and say what is wrong; content is corrected or supplied in another form |
| A complaint about the Service | Other | Say in the first line that the message is a complaint |
| A suspected security incident | None; do not use this site | Report by the emergency channel published to member administrators |
The office that answers each kind of enquiry, and the reply to expect from it, are set out in full under Contact Us. For the reporting of outages in particular, see Reporting an outage.
Categories in figures
- 1,012
- Access requests, the largest category, 10 August to 5 September 2026
- 11%
- Requests moved to a different category on examination
- 158
- Membership matters submitted under Other and referred to the Registry
- 0
- Requests refused or delayed for being in the wrong category
The figures record the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026. Of the 2,146 requests received, 236 were moved to a different category on examination. Most of these were reports of a fault affecting a whole site that had been submitted under Access by the individuals affected, and were regrouped under Connectivity; the rest were membership matters submitted under Access or Standards. No request was refused, and none was delayed by more than the working day that the move itself cost. The volume of requests received and answered in each category is set out under Contact Us.
Questions about the categories
Other questions may be sent to contact@support.gov.vin. For the procedure a request follows once it has been received, see How we work; for the times the Service works to in each category, see Service standards.