Cabinet Office agrees GCSx local access terms

The Society of IT Management (Socitm), which helped negotiate the terms, said that the agreement included cost reductions in connecting to the Government Secure Extranet (GCSx). It also met councils' concerns over the extranet's possible migration to the Public Sector Network by recognising the existence of 'low threat environments' in local public services. According to Socitm, 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 councils. This means that local public services organisations will not incur any significant additional costs or burdens above those required to meet version 3.2 of CoCo. In a letter to Socitm members on 13 September, president Jos Creese and chair of Socitm Futures Dylan Roberts say: "The use of GCSx has matured and is the recommended option for joining up across place. "Advice and guidance is available on how to initiate new data exchanges and shared services across government using GCSx. There are some good business cases and GCSx is seen as the natural transition to PSN that will be designed to be more appropriate and aligned to local public service requirements."