We have detected that you are using Internet Explorer to visit this website. Internet Explorer is now being phased out by Microsoft. As a result, NHS Digital no longer supports any version of Internet Explorer for our web-based products, as it involves considerable extra effort and expense, which cannot be justified from public funds. Some features on this site will not work. You should use a modern browser such as Edge, Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. If you have difficulty installing or accessing a different browser, contact your IT support team.
Spine technical information: Warranted Environment Specification (WES)
Computer systems which access NHS Digital services through Spine have to meet certain technical standards. The Warranted Environment Specification (WES) defines the client environments that we support.
Page contents
What the WES includes
The WES covers:
- operating systems
- browsers
- Java Virtual Machines (JVMs)
- Smartcard printer drivers
Systems suppliers and staff responsible for health and care technical infrastructure must check that the environments they are using meet these specifications and are fully supported. Updates must be carried out when recommended, to make sure all services keep running properly without interruption.
Check the vendor support roadmap to see when products like operating systems and browsers will stop being supported, to help with planning and service development.
Latest WES update
Addition of 2021 roadmap.
NHS Digital are working with a number of early adopters of Smartcard-less authentication on iOS devices. This is currently restricted to access to SCRa on iPads.
For more information, or to express an interest in becoming an early adopter as part of our private beta, please contact nhs.identity@nhs.net.