§ Brian WhiteTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what her policy is towards using open source software; and what percentage is used in her Department. [69329]
§ Ms HewittI support the use of open source software where it would provide long-term benefits to the Department.
To date, there is minimal use of open source software in the Department's core IT services, but UNITA,S regularly review whether its application would benefit the Department and if this is found to be the case, its introduction would be supported.
The Office of Government Commerce and the Office of the eEnvoy have published a draft policy on the use of open source software which was made available for consultation from December 2001 until March 2002. The draft policy is available for viewing on the OeE Govtalk website reference http://www.govtalk.gov.uk/rfc/rfc_document.asp?docnum=429 and it is planned to publish the policy in summer 2002. The DTI's use of open source software will follow the Government Policy when published.