Response submitted on behalf of SALTIS to the Cabinet Office’s consultation, Open Standards: Open Opportunities, the consultation period for which closed on 4 June 2012

The Cabinet Office proposes:

• to compile a list of approved open standards;
• to mandate the use of these standards by central government departments and their agencies;
• to encourage the wider public sector to follow the lead of central government.

A summary of the SALTIS position is that:

• we strongly support the wider use of appropriate open standards;
• we believe that the Cabinet Office’s approach may improve the transparency of central government data;
• we believe that the current proposals will have little positive impact on the wider public services, where the imposition of bureaucratically selected standards is likely to hinder innovation.

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