Constitutional affairs legal affairs

Workshop: Legal aspects of free and open source software 
____________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
79
results of a survey aiming at assessing the use of FOSS in the Spanish Government in 
2010
140
. The findings of the survey can be summarised as follows: 

 
The majority of the organisms of the national administration (nine out of ten) are 
using some FOSS. From a quantitative point of view, 40% of server technologies 
and 15% of desktop technologies are FOSS. 

 
Outstandingly, 68% of the surveyed organisms acquired FOSS by simply 
downloading it from a repository or a forge, and 46% of them have developed 
software based on FOSS (server software). 

 
One third of the surveyed organisms have procured FOSS (14,7% having required 
FOSS solutions if possible, and 21,7 % valorising the fact that the proposed solution 
be FOSS based). However 38,5% have confirmed that they do not adopt any 
specification in their tenders on that respect. 

 
27% of the surveyed organisms confirm having reused FOSS solutions developed by 
other public administrations. 
However, the surveyed administrations also let know that their IT departments needed 
more personnel specialised in FOSS and that more training was needed. 86% of them 
deemed necessary to improve the knowledge in FOSS. 
This legislative initiative has been confirmed and further extended at national level by the 
Act 18/2011 regulating the Use of ICT in the Administration of Justice
141
, which restates
142
 
the rules regarding the reuse of software via FOSS licensing as adopted in the eGov law 
and the Royal Decree. 
This general legal framework has also inspired the administrations of the autonomous 
communities. Indeed, the Basque Country has, in turn, adopted a decree to establish a 
general principle of openness which is not limited to the eGov applications but applies to 
any software owned by the public administration
143
. 
3.3.3 Features 

 
ACTION:  
 
Legislation 

 
DECISION LEVEL:   National 

 
ACTION LEVEL:  
Any level 

 
OBJECTIVES:   
To foster reuse of administration software by promoting and 
explicitly authorising the application of FOSS licences 

 
MEASURES TAKEN:  Legal authorisation to redistribute software free of charge 
under a FOSS licence 
Creation of a technology transfer centre listing and hosting the 
reusable software 
Legal obligation to consider the existing reusable software 
when procuring software. 

 
LICENSING:   
The EUPL is the “default” licence, but other copyleft licences 
are valid alternatives 
 
 
                                                 
140
  El Software Libre en los Organismos Públicos de Ámbito Estatal, Cenatic, December 2011, available at 
http://www.cenatic.es/publicaciones/onsfa?download=117%3Ael-software-libre-en-los-organismos-publicos-de-
ambito-estatal
. 
141
 Ley 18/2011, de 5 de julio, reguladora del uso de las tecnologías de la información y la comunicación en la 
Administración de Justicia, available at 
http://www.boe.es/buscar/doc.php?id=BOE-A-2011-11605
. 
142
 Article 55 et seq. 
143
 Decreto 159/2012, de 24 de julio, por el que se regula la apertura y reutilización de las aplicaciones 
informáticas de la administración pública de la Comunidad Autónoma de Euskadi, available at 
http://www.euskadi.net/cgi-
bin_k54/ver_c?CMD=VERDOC&BASE=B03A&DOCN=000111019&CONF=/config/k54/bopv_c.cnf
 

---

Policy Department C: Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs 
____________________________________________________________________________________________ 
 
80

 
EFFECTIVENESS: Public 
Administrations seem globally informed on FOSS. 
Administration software has been reused. 
Positive discrimination has sometimes been adopted. 
There is no clear information about whether the playing field is 
actively levelled. 
3.4. 
United Kingdom: Government ICT Strategy 
3.4.1 General 
presentation 
In March 2011, the United Kingdom’s Cabinet Office issued a document officialising the 
adoption of a new Government ICT Strategy
144
. Cutting costs serves as a leitmotiv
145
 and 
sharing software as a means to an end. The document states that its global aim is 
openness towards people, the organisations that use its services, and towards any provider 
regardless of size. The strategy stresses the need to let SME’s access the market, to 
recentre in-house capacities and to avoid oversized, and thus very costly, projects
146
. The 
government deems it also important to streamline and centralise the procurement 
practices. To do so, it has planned to develop a new operating model for departments and a 
new procurement system. 
The Government ICT Strategy also aims at fostering the reuse and adaptation of systems 
which are available ‘off the shelf’ or have already been procured by another part of the 
government. Paragraph 15 of the Strategy explicitly states that the different departments 
will reuse and share ICT solutions and contracts, rather than purchasing new or bespoke 
solutions and that the government will not commission new solutions where something 
similar already exists. To identify reusable applications, equipment and resources, the 
government builds up a cross-government asset register and also plans to create an online 
Applications Store. 
In  the  same  line  of  reasoning,  the  government has decided to impose compulsory open 
standards and to create a level playing field for open source software. Paragraph 16 of the 
Strategy provides that “where appropriate, government will procure open source solutions. 
When used in conjunction with compulsory open standards, open source presents 
significant opportunities for the design and delivery of interoperable solutions”.  
To create the level playing field for the use of innovative ICT solutions, the government has 
published a toolkit for procurers on best practices to evaluate the use of open source 
solutions
147
, and which encompasses, amongst others, a general document explaining what 
open source is
148
, an open source applications reference list detailing applications that can 
be contemplated as options for the administration
149
 and guidelines on FOSS 
procurement
150
. The latter only provide high level advice on how to ensure that open 
source software is fairly considered when procuring an ICT solution. They underline the 
inherent flexibility of Open Source as regards several requirements that should always be 
considered when procuring software, such as the scalability of licence, the transferability of 
software or the compliance with open standards.  
The guidelines also explain that “where the software is free to use ‘gratis’ software and all 
associated products are free for the whole of life use then there is no requirement to tender 
the requirement for the licenses”. However, “(a) purchase of support and maintenance 
procured separately from licenses will need to be tendered where it is expected that the 
cost of support meets the EU thresholds and in accordance with any standing financial 
instructions”. 
                                                 
144
 Available at 
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/content/government-ict-strategy
 
145
 This is confirmed by Linda Humphries on the Government’s blog, “Are open standards a closed barrier?”, 12 
avril 2012, available at 
http://digital.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/2012/04/12/are-open-standards-a-closed-barrier/
 
146 
The Government sets a presumption against government ICT projects valued at over £100 million. 
147 
Available at 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-source-procurement-toolkit
. 
148
 “All about open source: an introduction to Open Source software for Government IT”, version 2, April 2012, 
available at the same address. 
149
 “Open Source Software Options for Government”, version 2, April 2012, available at the same address. 
150 
“ICT Advice Note - Procurement of Open Source”, October 2011, available at the same address. 

---