Corporate report

Defra's plan for publishing documents in open standards format.

Published 3 November 2014

This was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

© Crown copyright 2014

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/defra-plan-open-document-formats-for-publishing/the-defra-plan-for-publishing-documents-in-open-standards-format

1. Introduction

Cabinet Office announced the Open Document Format for Office Productivity Applications policy on 22 July 2014, which established ODF (1.2) as the standard for sharing documents across the public sector. PDF/A and HTML5 become the default for publishing documents.

The government departments’ Technology Leaders Network meeting, on 26 September 2014, called for publication of implementation plans.

2. Summary

This Defra response is based on assessment of office productivity and web publishing tools available to core Defra and other bodies who currently publish on GOV.UK.

Web publishing teams with Office 2007 or Office 2010 are able to generate and publish documents in PDF/A or ODF (1.1) formats. Content published on GOV.UK in html format is understood to meet HTML5 standards. Transparency publishing is primarily CSV file format through data.gov.uk.

3. Actions

  1. Over the next 3 months we will be making web publishing and transparency teams in those organisations who currently publish on GOV.UK aware of the new requirements, and providing guidance where required. We will also be reviewing our publishing governance processes to promote and embed best practices.

  2. At the same time, over the next 6 months we will be cascading information about the policy to our agencies and NDPBs who do not currently publish on GOV.UK, providing advice and influencing change where appropriate.

  3. We will be exploring our use of forms, both internal and external, and development of web based forms, liaising with GDS where appropriate

4. Defra organisations currently publishing on GOV.UK

The following organisations use Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010 and can all generate ODF (1.1) documents and PDF/A documents. They cannot currently generate ODF (1.2) documents.

  • Defra
  • Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE)
  • Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)
  • Environment Agency (EA)
  • Marine Management Organisation (MMO)
  • Natural England (NE)
  • Rural Payments Agency (RPA)
  • Science Advisory Council (SAC)
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