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 across government to identify common needs for products, platforms and services and to build electronic services centrally.

V. Users’ Access to Parliamentary Documents

On July 22, 2014, the Government Digital Service announced it would begin to use open standard formats by default for all government documents, in order to provide users with a choice about the software they use to read government documents, enable agencies to share work more easily, and make it easier and cheaper to do business with the government.

All parliamentary documents published on gov.uk must meet the Government Digital Service guidelines and accessibility standards to ensure that all users, including the disabled, are able to access them. The vast majority of government organizations publish documents online in PDF, and to ensure that the PDF version of parliamentary papers comply with relevant requirements, the National Archives works with the Crown Commercial Services to ensure that papers published through any contractors meet these standards. The government no longer publishes printed copies of official documents for sale, but there a number of private printers that offer them. No supplier has been endorsed by the government. The Parliamentary Archives provides a public search room that is open to the public to view records that are not subject to restrictions on disclosure. It also has a website and is working on a catalog to provide links to digital records. The Freedom of Information Act provides individuals with the right to be told whether a public authority holds information and the right to be provided with the information, subject to a number of exemptions. Published parliamentary papers are exempt from the disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act because they are accessible to applicants by other means.