Our engineering principles are the high-level direction we want to encourage engineers to follow or consider when they are making decisions and implementing things. Look at the 'writing a principle' standard and provide some brief information below

What is the principle you are suggesting?
Continuously maintain and evolve: Regularly update code, dependencies, pipelines, and infrastructure to keep systems secure, efficient, and aligned with modern standards

What would be the benefit to the Home Office of adopting this principle?
It reduces technical debt, improves security by eliminating vulnerabilities, ensures compatibility with modern tools, and avoids costly, large-scale upgrades

How might people follow it
Schedule regular maintenance in sprints, monitor updates in the ecosystem, use tools to automate dependency management, and include maintenance in team roadmaps

Additional information
This principle complements existing practices by focusing on maintaining and evolving systems over time, preventing stagnation and ensuring long-term success

Please confirm the below

• I have looked at the writing-a-principle standard and think this would meet the standard
• I have looked through our existing principles and think this is not covered elsewhere
• I have checked through the open issues on the repository and this principle has not already been suggested