Spine technical information: Warrantied Environment Specification (WES)

Computer systems which access NHS England services through Spine have to meet certain technical standards. The Warrantied Environment Specification (WES) defines the client environments that we support and applications requiring a smartcard or other approved authenticator to be aligned with the terms and conditions.

NHS England WES

The WES defines the versions of software required to be installed on client machines in order that they are supported by NHS England to access NHS Spine systems and applications requiring a smartcard.

Use of client software versions which are not listed in the WES are not supported by NHS England for connectivity to NHS Spine systems.

If NHS organisations or system suppliers are using unsupported client software versions, connecting to NHS Spine systems will not be fully supported until migration to a supported version.

The WES defines the technical environments in terms of:

operating systems
browsers
Java virtual machines (JVMs)
smartcard printer drivers

NHS England strongly recommends that users and system suppliers consult the WES and assure themselves that all software versions currently in use are fully supported.

Check our software product support information to see when products like operating systems and browsers will stop being supported, to help with planning and service development.

Where environments being used do not comply with the WES, NHS England strongly recommends updating these environments to ensure continuity of service and support and incidents raised where unsupported versions of software are being used will not be accepted.

In addition to the information published by NHS England, organisations should also consult vendor support roadmaps to determine when underlying products, such as the operating system or browser, reach end-of-life. This should influence planning for the future to help ensure that deployed solutions have a long and supported lifespan.

The tables below describe the supported environment for each system listed. Windows Internet of Things (IoT) Editions are not supported.

Operating systems

NHS England Smartcard enabled system	Windows 11⁽⁴⁾	Windows 10⁽²⁾	Window 8.1 and earlier
Care Identity Service application⁽¹⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Care Identity Management	Recommended	Supported	Retired
SUS	Recommended	Supported	Retired
e-RS - Professional	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine EPS Tracker⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine Reporting Service⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine Demographic application⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine TES Alert Viewer⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine SCRa⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine National Care Records Service (NCRS)	Recommended	Supported	Retired
Spine MOLES (message tracker) and MESH UI⁽³⁾	Recommended	Supported	Retired

Browsers *

NHS England Smartcard enabled system	Edge (native)	Chrome ⁽³⁾	Firefox	Edge (non-Chromium)	Edge (IE mode)	IE11 and below	Safari
Care Identity Service application⁽¹⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired
Care Identity Management	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired
SUS	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
e-RS - Professional	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine EPS Tracker⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine Reporting Service⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine Demographic application⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine TES Alert Viewer⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine SCRa⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired
Spine National Care Records Service (NCRS)	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Supported
Spine MOLES (message tracker) and MESH UI⁽³⁾	Recommended	Recommended	Retired	Unsupported	Retired	Retired	Retired

Java

NHS England Smartcard enabled system	JRE (32-bit)
Care Identity Service application⁽¹⁾	Deprecated
Care Identity Management	Retired
SUS	Deprecated
e-RS - Professional	Retired
Spine EPS Tracker⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine Reporting Service⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine Demographic application⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine TES Alert Viewer⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine SCRa⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine National Care Records Service (NCRS)	Retired
Spine MOLES (message tracker) and MESH UI⁽³⁾	Deprecated
Spine MESH Client⁽³⁾	8, OpenJDK 11 and 17

Term	Meaning
Recommended	This software is the version NHS England most strongly recommends being used as it will have undergone a high level of assurance and will be widely adopted. Later versions may exist and can be used safely where also ‘Supported’. Recommended versions should be used.
Supported	This software has been confirmed by NHS England as working satisfactorily in most settings and remains supported. Supported versions may be older or newer than ‘Recommended’ versions. Supported versions can be used.
Unsupported	This software has not been confirmed by NHS England as working as intended; it is either known to have specific issues or is insufficiently tested. Organisations may choose to use ‘Unsupported’ versions, but NHS England cannot be held liable for any consequences of its use and will be unable to offer any help or support. Unsupported versions should not be used.
Deprecated	This software is still supported (unless specifically noted otherwise) but is intended to become ‘Retired’ and be removed from active service. Deprecated versions can be used, but their viable life is limited and we strongly recommend that NHS organisations put a plan into place to upgrade them to ‘Recommended’ or ‘Supported’.
Retired	This software must not be used as it is no longer supported and must not be expected to work. Retired versions must not be used.

^* Private browsing modes are unsupported.

⁽¹⁾ Care Identity Applications can be accessed via Chrome/Edge using NHS Credential Management, which also supports CMS (smartcard operations).

Chrome and Edge can also be used with the Chrome extension (link requires HSCN connection), but this is ‘Deprecated’ and does not allow the use of CMS (smartcard operations).

Citrix does not support CMS (smartcard operations).

⁽²⁾ The CIS application is warrantied against Windows 10, up to and including v22H2 (64-bit), and Java JRE v8 (32-bit) up to and including v8.321. There is no intention to warranty later versions of Java, as both it and its related browser, Internet Explorer (IE), are retired across all NHS England services.

⁽³⁾ Chrome and Edge (Native) require NHS Credential Management (preferred) or the deprecated Chrome extension (link requires HSCN connection) to work with the Spine UIs and CIS Application. For e-RS the recommended version of Chrome must be within ten releases of the current, production version.

⁽⁴⁾ The latest supported version of Windows 11 is v22H2. No newer versions have yet been tested.

NHS England approved authenticators	Supported operating systems	Supported browsers
Smartcards	Windows 10 Windows 11	Edge Chrome
NHS CIS2 Auth iPad app⁽¹⁾	iPad OS 16 and above	Safari
Windows Hello for Business	Windows 10 Windows 11	Edge Chrome Firefox
Security keys⁽²⁾	Windows 10 Windows 11 macOS 13 and above	Edge Chrome Safari Firefox
Microsoft Authenticator⁽³⁾	Windows 10 Windows 11 macOS 13 and above	Edge Chrome Safari Firefox

Organisations may choose to use NHS England approved authenticators on other devices (such as Chromebooks and Android tablets), other operating systems (including Linux) and other browsers, but NHS England cannot be held liable for any consequences of its use and will be unable to offer any help or support.

See our Setting up and troubleshooting page for available device configurations for smartcards.

⁽¹⁾ iPad devices need to be managed by a mobile device management (MDM) system.

⁽²⁾ That must be FIDO Authenticator Level 2 Certified. Guidance is available.

⁽³⁾Microsoft Authenticator is recommended. Google Authenticator is also supported.

Further information

Software product support information

The expandable fields below describe the support status of the NHS England bespoke software applications used to access Spine services.

Last edited: 21 February 2024 12:11 pm