Dates and times

The many different ways that we can write dates and times can confuse customers. For example is 12.00 lunch time, midday or midnight?

So we make sure we are consistent throughout our website, and follow best practice based on current research.

Times

• 3pm, not 3:00pm
• use ‘to’ in time ranges, not hyphens, en rules or em dashes: 10am to 11am (not 10-11am)
• 5:30pm (not 1730hrs)
• midnight (not 00:00 - but take care with deadlines
• midday (not 12 noon, noon or 12pm)
• 6 hours 30 minutes
• Midnight is the first minute of the day, not the last. You should consider using “11:59pm” to avoid confusion about a single, specific time.

Take care with specific deadlines, for example, “You must register by 11:59pm on Tuesday 14 June.” can only be read one way, but “You must register by midnight on Tuesday 14 June” can be read in two ways (the end of Monday 13, or end of Tuesday 14).

Dates and months

• spell out the date in full, 12 October 2023 not 12/10/23
• use upper case for months: January, February
• do not use a comma between the month and year: 4 June 2017
• we use ‘to’ in date ranges - not hyphens or dashes. For example:
• tax year 2022 to 2023
• Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (put different days on a new line, do not separate with a comma)
• 10 November to 21 December
• do not use quarter for dates, use the months: ‘department expenses, January to March 2023’
• when referring to today (as in a news article) include the date: ‘The minister announced today (14 June 2012) that…’

Years

• write out the year in full, 2023 not 23
• for a period of years write 2023 to 2024, not 23/24 or 2023-2024