Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, whether her Department requires the use of open‑source software, open standards or open interfaces as part of its oversight and approval of major IT procurement across Government.

As of February 2025, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), through its incorporation of the Government Digital Service (GDS), requires full consideration be given to the use of open standards and open-source software.

DSIT oversight and approval processes for major IT spend is governed by the requirements and guidance contained in several key GDS publications:

• Technology Code of Practice (TCoP): This is the primary set of criteria used for government digital and technology spend controls. It explicitly requires departments to "be open and use open source" and to build technology using open standards to ensure interoperability and avoid vendor lock-in.
• The Service Standard: Point 12 requires teams to "make new source code open" and available for reuse across government, while Point 13 mandates the use of and contribution to open standards and common components.
• Open Standards Principles: The government's open standards principles state that the standards must be used for software interoperability, data, and document formats unless a specific exemption is granted.

Oversight Mechanisms

• v.6 Government Digital and Technology Controls are in place until 31 March 2026: all unexempted digital and technology spend proposals that fall within scope, must obtain DSIT Digital spend control approval prior to committing spend.
• In scope spend for public-facing digital services is whole life cost above £100,000.
• In scope spend for all other technology is whole life cost above £1,000,000.
• To obtain spend approval, departmental assurers (and, according to risk, GDS) benchmark the spend proposal against the requirements and guidance contained with the three key publications cited at section 2 above.

From 1 April 2026 onwards, each department is accountable for applying all functional standards as set by DSIT, regarding Digital, Data and Technology spends. Functional assurance will only be conducted by DSIT where the spend exceeds the Department’s Delegated Authority Limit (DAL) set by HM Treasury.