Error summary Change history

Date Changed Description
Jun 2026 GOV.UK Frontend v6.2.0

Fixed component CSS outputting list code twice.
Feb 2025 Guidance

Added clarification that GOV.UK Frontend will automatically move keyboard focus to the Error summary component.
Jul 2024 GOV.UK Frontend v5.4.1

Re-added spacing at the bottom of the component that was removed in v5.4.0.
May 2024 GOV.UK Frontend v5.4.0

Fixed an empty <ul> element being output when there are no errors to display.
Nov 2022 GOV.UK Frontend v4.4.0

Removed aria-labelledby and moved role="alert" from the component root to an element nested inside of it. This resolved an issue in the JAWS screen reader where it would not read the entire Error summary.
Aug 2022 GOV.UK Frontend v4.3.0

Added the ability to pass the descriptionHtml parameter using Nunjucks call syntax.
Feb 2022 GOV.UK Frontend v4.0.1

Added disableAutoFocus parameter to prevent the summary automatically taking keyboard focus when the page loads.

Removed the tabindex attribute from the component’s HTML. It’s now added by JavaScript when needed.
Mar 2020 Guidance

Moved some guidance to the Recover from validation errors pattern.
Oct 2019 GOV.UK Frontend v3.3.0

Fixed invalid inputs not being visible on screen if they’re contained in a large fieldset. Error summary will now check if the input will not be visible and will scroll to the input instead of the fieldset’s legend.
Jul 2019 GOV.UK Frontend v3.0.0

Fixed links appending the ID of the related input to the URL, which prevented the Error summary being automatically focused on any following form submissions.

Updated border width to be the same across all breakpoints.
Nov 2018 GOV.UK Frontend v2.4.0

Updated link behaviour to scroll to the label or legend of the input, rather than the input itself, to avoid cutting off information the user might need to fix the error.
Nov 2018 Guidance

Added guidance on how to link to different types of question from the Error summary.
Sept 2018 GOV.UK Frontend v2.1.0

Added ability to add HTML attributes to individual error messages.
Jul 2018 Guidance

Clarified that the component should always be used with the Error message component.
Jun 2018 GOV.UK Frontend v1.0.0

Component introduced.
May 2018 Guidance

Expanded guidance on when and how to use an Error summary.