§ Brian WhiteTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is towards using open source software; and what percentage is used in his Department. [69320]
§ Ruth KellyIt is planned to publish the Government's policy for open source software in summer 2002. The draft policy was made available for consultation from December 2001 until 12 March 2002.
The Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise and the Treasury use of open source software will follow the Government policy when it is published. The policy references the European Commission's initiative "eEurope—An Information Society for all".
At present there is minimal use of open source software in the Inland Revenue, Customs and Excise and Treasury although the new technical architectures in IR and C7E are substantially compliant with the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) which mandates open standards and specifications.
The policy of all three Departments is to select the most appropriate software to support its business needs taking account of functionality, cost, reliability and ease of support. IT procurements will include open source software solutions alongside proprietary ones.
The draft Government policy can be viewed at http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/rfc/rfc_document.asp?docnum=429