Department for Work and Pensions plans open source tests

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), one of Whitehall's two biggest spending departments on software, is to trial the use of open source software next year. "It is the department's intention to trial within the next 12 months, a pilot of up to 1,000 desktops to test proof of concept for open source," a DWP spokeswoman told GGC. In 2010-11 it spent £275m on software, including management and support costs, as shown by figures from Kable. Only HM Revenue and Customs spent a similar amount on software. The coalition government has appeared keen to promote increased use of open standards and open source software. A year ago Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude told major IT suppliers to rethink their approach to projects, making them smaller and using off-the-shelf and open source technology where possible. In November the Cabinet Office has published an open source procurement toolkit for the public sector on its website. It said the purpose is to create a level playing field for open source and proprietary software. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For updates on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here .