Telephone number formatting

[tomdoughty]

What

Establishing a consistent way we format telephone numbers.

Why

When comparing 2 apps both displaying the same data from the Service Search API I noticed one was formatting the phone number like '0123 4567 890'. The other just displayed the phone number however it came from the API which was often one long string like '01234567890' I feel it is a lot more readable to split the number up with spaces.

Anything else

The app which formats phone numbers uses an open source library https://github.com/google/libphonenumber. This is maintained by Google and is used in Android to format numbers that are calling you. It also knows whether the area should split as 4,3,4 or 5,6 as you can see below.

01131234567 -> 0113 123 4567 01733123456 -> 01733 123456 07777123456 -> 07777 123456

Related issue

• Telephone number input and display

[chrimesdev]

GOVUK have some good guidance on writing telephone numbers and how to display telephone telephone numbers

[tomdoughty]

Ahh the first link does seems to cover it. Not sure how I really missed that. Maybe worth spreading knowledge of the Nuget and NPM packages available which can help us meet the recommendations 👍

[chrimesdev]

We've had another team ask a similar question recently, so I wonder if its worth duplicating the content in the NHS digital service manual too @sarawilcox?

[sarawilcox]

Thanks. I'll see what content designers think, check if we have any conflicting evidence, and perhaps we can include it. Will check at next week's Content Style Council meeting.

[rhiannonsmith]

Hi @tomdoughty is this something that relates to the internet pharmacies on NHS.UK (https://www.nhs.uk/service-search/other-services/pharmacies/internetpharmacies)? Thanks

[sarawilcox]

At the January 2020 Style Council meeting, we agreed to include the GDS guidance on telephone number format in the service manual.

We have tried to make the bit about “easily remembered units” clearer with an example.

We agreed to leave the example of “077718 300 300” in, despite discussion over whether it is a real format or not. [Sara has asked GOV.UK about the 12 digit number. No reply yet.]

Following wording agreed and signed off by clinicians.

Use telephone: 011 111 111 or mobile:. Do not use mob:.

Use spaces between city and local exchange. Here are the different formats to use:

01273 800 900

020 7450 4000

0800 890 567

07771 900 900

077718 300 300

+44 (0)20 7450 4000

+39 1 33 45 70 90

When an organisation has chosen a memorable number, for example for a campaign, group the numbers into easily remembered units: 0800 80 70 60.

[sarawilcox]

Guidance published: https://service-manual.nhs.uk/content/a-to-z-of-nhs-health-writing#T

[sarawilcox]

Update: At the February Content Style Council meeting, we agreed to replace what is currently the Environment Agency telephone number with the Samaritans' phone number as this is more relevant for NHS teams.

Proposed change:

"When an organisation has chosen a memorable number, for example for a campaign, group the numbers into easily remembered units. An example is the number for the Samaritans: 116 123."

[Waiting for clinical sign off]

[sarawilcox]

Signed off by clinicians. Changes made: nhsuk/nhsuk-service-manual#603 Waiting to go live.

[sarawilcox]

Can we add something about not adding links to phone numbers, in line with GDS guidance: https://design-system.service.gov.uk/patterns/telephone-numbers/#do-not-display-telephone-numbers-as-links-on-devices-that-cannot-make-calls?

[markasrobinson]

Some thoughts on the GOV guidance:

• about 85% of visits to NHS.UK are on a mobile, and growing every year - we need to balance benefits to this group over drawbacks for desktop users
• while Safari appears to automatically link numbers, lots of people do not use iPhones or use Chrome, which does not appear to do this
• there might be a stronger case for linking "numbers that don't look like numbers" (e.g. 111, 119, 116 123) - there has been evidence of people not knowing how to call 111/what the number is, and perhaps linking the number might help these people?
• also, in the case of 999 and 111, any seconds we can save from linking numbers directly could be life-saving

Might be worth a discussion of how/if the GOV guidance fits in a health context?