The government is to adopt a British standard for the description
of property in online public sector IT projects.
Paul DonovanThe Cabinet Office has agreed to include BS7666 in its
e-Government Interoperability Framework, following pressure from
the Society of IT Management (Socitm).
Last month, the Cabinet Office issued a second version of its
framework for consultation but it did not include BS7666. However,
a Cabinet Office spokesperson has told computerweekly.com that the
standard will now be adopted.
Socitm, which represents public sector IT managers, insists that
BS7666 is important for interoperability.
"If the BS7666 is adopted addresses can be matched exactly. It
is an important enabler for e-government where much of the
information being transferred around relates to addresses," said a
Socitm spokesperson. "Computer systems will match 60% of addresses
which could be enhanced to 90% accuracy but BS7666 demands exact
matching."
BS7666 specifies how data should be recorded in four areas:
streets, land and property, addresses and public rights of way.
Socitm has also complained that it was not given enough time to
consider the second version of the interoperability framework. The
government had committed itself to giving organisations 40 days to
respond to its draft but the society said it only received notice
of the second version on 23 February with a closing date for public
consultation of 7 March.
A Cabinet Office spokesperson responded that the framework was
subject to constant consultation and if an issue was not picked up
in one revision it was likely to be dealt with in the next.