Service levels
Each shared service of the Velocity Interoperability Network is provided to member organisations against a set of service levels agreed between the office responsible for the service and the member organisations at the establishment of the Network on 6 September 2026. The service levels state how available a service must be, how quickly it must respond, and how quickly the responsible office must act when it fails. The Status Service measures every service against them and reports the results monthly.
The service levels are targets, not guarantees. A month in which a target is missed is recorded in the availability report for that month together with an account from the responsible office of the cause and the steps taken to prevent a recurrence. No financial remedy attaches to a missed target; the remedy is publication.
- 99.9%
- Highest availability target, for the Identity Service and the Interoperability exchange
- 99.0%
- Lowest availability target, for the Support desk
- 15 min
- Time allowed to acknowledge an Unavailable service
- 4 hours
- Maximum time to restore an Unavailable service
Availability and response-time targets. The table below sets out the target for each service, the office answerable for meeting it and the hours during which the target applies. Outside its service hours the Support desk continues to be checked and its status continues to be published, but time outside those hours does not count towards its availability.
| Service | Responsible office | Availability | Response time | Service hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Identity Service | Identity Service office | 99.9% | 2 seconds | At all times |
| Member Registry | Registry office | 99.5% | 3 seconds | At all times |
| Developer Portal interfaces | Developer Portal office | 99.5% | 2 seconds | At all times |
| Official Register | Register office | 99.5% | 3 seconds | At all times |
| Support desk | Support Service | 99.0% | 5 seconds | 08:00 to 18:00, working days |
| Interoperability exchange | Interoperability exchange office | 99.9% | 1 second to acknowledge | At all times |
The higher targets for the Identity Service and the Interoperability exchange reflect their position: the other shared services depend on the first to authenticate their users and on the second to pass records between member organisations. An interruption to either is likely to interrupt others, and the components through which that dependence runs are described on the Component status page.
Responding to a fault. When the Status Service records a change from Operational, the responsible office is bound by the times below, measured from the notification. The times are shorter where the service is Unavailable than where it is Degraded, and shorter again where the fault may affect data held by the service.
| Status | Acknowledge | First update | Further updates | Restore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Degraded | 30 minutes | 1 hour | Every 2 hours | 8 hours |
| Unavailable | 15 minutes | 30 minutes | Every hour | 4 hours |
| Unavailable, affecting data | 15 minutes | 30 minutes | Every 30 minutes | 2 hours |
How each measure is calculated. The measures used in this page and in the monthly reports are defined below. They are applied identically to every service, and the underlying check results are retained so that any figure published can be recalculated.
- Availability
- The proportion of the service hours in a calendar month during which the service was Operational or Degraded. Time during an announced maintenance window is excluded. Time during which the service was Unavailable is counted in full, from the first failed check or report to the check at which the service was confirmed restored.
- Response time
- The time taken by the service to return a complete response to the standard check request. The target is met in a month if at least ninety-five per cent of scheduled checks complete within the time shown. A check that completes outside the time is recorded as Degraded.
- Time to acknowledge
- The time between the Status Service notifying the responsible office of a change of status and the office confirming that it has begun work. Measured for every incident.
- Time to update
- The interval between successive entries in the incident log while an incident is open. An office that cannot report progress must still enter a note to that effect within the interval.
- Time to restore
- The time between the opening of an incident and the check at which the service is confirmed Operational. The target is a maximum, not an expectation; most incidents should be resolved well within it.
The first day. The interruption to the Identity Service and the Developer Portal interfaces between 08:20 and 08:35 on 6 September 2026 was acknowledged by both offices within five minutes and restored within fifteen. Both offices met the time to acknowledge, the time to update and the time to restore for an Unavailable service. Whether the two services meet their availability targets for September will depend on the rest of the month and will be reported on 1 October 2026.
Changes to service levels. A service level may be changed only by agreement between the responsible office and the member organisations, and any change is recorded on this page with the date from which it applies. The Status Service is not a party to the agreement and does not set the targets; its role is to measure against them without favour. The procedure by which measurements are taken is described under How status is determined.
Questions about the service levels may be sent to contact@status.gov.vin. Questions about the performance of a particular service should be raised through the Support desk of your member organisation.