Letter to Socitm members about the GC compliance agreement September 2010

Produced by: External

On 13 September, Socitm President Jos Creese, and Dylan Roberts, Chair of Socitm Futures, wrote to members to tell them that agreement had been reached with the Cabinet Office over the security standards required for local authorities to connect to the Government Secure Extranet (GCSx).

This network will allow sharing of data and services across government and is a vital element in delivering efficient electronic services.

The agreement meets local public services' concerns about the cost of connection to GCSx and its future migration to the Public Sector Network (PSN) by recognising the existence of 'low threat environments' in local public services. Modified standards for the Government Connect Code of Connection (CoCo) version 4.1 for these environments will ensure that expensive, new investments are not required by local authorities. This means that local public services organisations will not incur any significant additional costs or burdens over and above those that they have incurred already to become CoCo v3.2 compliant.

Socitm and the LGA raised the issue with the Cabinet Office, the Government Connect Management Body and the PSN team, following considerable concern from local public service providers about the cost of implementing CoCo v4.1.

Last modified: 15th September 2010