Collection

Open standards for government data and technology

Using open standards to improve how government shares data and provides services.

The government uses a fair and transparent process to select open standards for use across all government organisations.

Anyone can get involved in helping to set standards for software interoperability, data and document formats in government IT.

The chosen open standards follow the open standards principles and government organisations can use them to make services better for users.

How the government selects and uses open standards

Find out about the open standards principles, how open standards are used in the Technology Code of Practice and how you can get involved in selecting more open standards for government.

Open standards for exchanging information

The open standards in this group are mandated for government use in the relevant projects, programmes and services. They are for improving how government organisations exchange information.

Open standards for formatting and describing information

The open standards in this group are mandated for government use in the relevant projects, programmes and services. They are for improving how government organisations format and describe information.

Open standards for publishing information

The open standards in this group are mandated for government use in the relevant projects, programmes and services. They are for improving how government organisations publish information.

The open standards in this group are recommended for government use for the relevant project, programmes and services.

Updates to this page

Published 12 July 2017
Last updated 28 November 2023 + show all updates
  1. Added a link to the page: Recommended open standards for government

  2. Added a link to the page: Essential Shared Data Assets and Data Ownership in Government

  3. Addition of 3 new profiles for 'Using metadata to describe tabular data for publishing', 'Using metadata to describe data shared within government' and 'Using metadata to describe csv data'. Please note that the publication date for these profiles will appear on all the profiles, but there are no changes to any other profiles at this time.

  4. This collection has been amended to make it easier to find the current mandated and recommended open standards.

  5. First published.