The U.K. government has adopted the Open Document Format (ODF) for sharing or collaborating on government documents

ODF (OpenDocument Format) is the native file format of free open-source applications such as Apache OpenOffice, originally developed by Sun Microsystems, and LibreOffice, a fork of OpenOffice maintained by The Document Foundation. It is also supported by recent versions of Microsoft Office and other commercial office productivity software such as WordPerfect Office X7.

UK Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said the standards set out the document file formats that are expected to be used across all government bodies. 

“Government will begin using open formats that will ensure that citizens and people working in government can use the applications that best meet their needs when they are viewing or working on documents together.

It has also selected PDF/A  or HTML for viewing government documents.

“This is a major step forward for our digital-by-default agenda which is helping save citizens, businesses and taxpayers £1.2 billion over this Parliament,” said Maude.

Mike Bracken, Executive Director of the Government Digital Service said, ”We had a huge response to this proposal, both from the standards community and the public as a whole.

“Their feedback made it clear just how important choosing the right way of publishing documents is. Using an open standard will mean people won’t have costs imposed on them just to view or work with information from government. It’s a big step forward, and I’m delighted we’re taking it.”