Open Data Platform — UK Local Government Digital Transformation

GDS Service Standard Compliance: The platform met all 18 GDS Service Standard points. User research conducted with: local journalists, civic tech developers, local businesses using planning data, and citizens accessing spending data. GOV.UK Design System components throughout. WCAG 2.1 AA tested with NVDA screen reader. DCAT Metadata Standard: Data Catalogue Vocabulary (DCAT) — the W3C standard for data catalogues. Implemented DCAT-AP UK (the UK Government profile of DCAT). Datasets published with full metadata: publisher, temporal coverage, spatial coverage, licence (Open Government Licence), update frequency, and format. Public Developer API: REST API with OpenAPI 3.0 documentation. Rate limiting per developer key (100 requests/minute). GOV.UK API design guide principles. API key registration flow with email verification. Webhook support for dataset update notifications. UK GDPR for Public Data: Not all local authority data is purely open — some planning application data contains personal information (applicant names, addresses). UK GDPR review per dataset before publication: pseudonymisation of personal identifiers in open datasets, separate API endpoint for full data (restricted to verified public sector users), and DPIA for any processing of special category data.