The UK’s newly-elected coalition government says that it will create a level playing field for open source software in government projects and split large computing projects into smaller ones – which it says will give smaller companies a better chance to compete in tenders for public-sector IT contractors.

The coalition says it will take steps to open up government procurement and reduce costs; publish government ICT contracts online; create a level playing field for open-source software and will enable large ICT projects to be split into smaller components.

Although the previous Labour administration had set out an aim to encourage the use of open source software and methods in government projects, it reportedly gained little traction. Last year it said that open source should be on an equal footing with proprietary systems and that ‘procurement decisions will be made on the basis on the best value for money solution to the business requirement, taking account of total lifetime cost of ownership of the solution, including exit and transition costs, after ensuring that solutions fulfil minimum and essential capability, security, scalability, transferability, support and manageability requirements.’ It also added that the government ‘will, wherever possible, avoid becoming locked in to proprietary software’.

The coalition also stressed its commitment to rolling out ‘superfast’ broadband to all areas: “We will introduce measures to ensure the rapid roll-out of superfast broadband access across the country. We will ensure that BT and other infrastructure providers allow the use of their assets to introduce superfast broadband in remote areas at the same time as in more populated areas. If necessary, we will consider using part of the TV licence fee that is supporting digital switch over to fund broadband in areas that the market alone will not reach.”