The Cabinet Office e-Government Unit (eGU) announced on 23 March, 2005 that it would hand over the management of the XML schemas to the Local e-Government Standards Body (e-SB) on 1 April, 2005.
As part of the process local government XML schemas currently held on GovTalk will be moved to e-SB's Custodian Web site. The two organisations will work in partnership to ensure continuity of service for schema users and developers.
"The e-SB is well placed to serve the needs of the local government community,' said Mark Gladwyn, director for infrastructure services at eGU. 'We feel this is an excellent opportunity for them to take control of a key e-government resource."
Jim Haslem, chief executive of e-SB, commented: "It will make sense for local authority customers to have the XML schemas in the same place as e-standards and other supporting material for local e-government. All existing local government XML schemas can be held on Custodian, and new ones can participate in the certification process in due course."
The e-SB schema service is designed to work within the guidelines that informs the GovTalk schema management process. Core and other non-local government schemas will continue to be managed by eGU.
National Projects – which promote local e-government and backed by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister – are developing a number of schemas. Local authorities will be able to see them as they are developed, before going through the certification service, thereby reducing the chances of work being duplicated.
e-SB will continue to carry out technical quality assurance, using existing tools on Custodian, to ensure that the GovTalk schema guidelines are followed. It also plans to offer a discussion forum for those using or involved in developing schema to be able to discuss topics across local government
