Steering & coordination forums

The cross-stakeholder bodies that turn legislation and policy into collective decisions. DPMSG is the central one. Smart Data Council and the Home Buying and Selling Council are adjacent venues OPDA's leadership also sits on.

DPMSG — Digital Property Market Steering Group

Formed 1 August 2023 by HM Land Registry. The central convening body for the entire programme. From the gov.uk founding announcement:

That's the view of a newly formed coalition of government and industry partners — the Digital Property Market Steering Group (DPMSG) — representing an important coming together of key industry partners under a shared vision at a pivotal time for the property market. The group's purpose is to help the property market work better for all by accelerating the adoption of digital technology, while ensuring it is transparent, secure and consumer friendly, through collaboration and innovation across the sector.

Founding members (13, 1 Aug 2023)

Source: source/08-external-references/uk-government/news/new-digital-property-market-steering-group-formed-to-drive-crucial-digital-transformation-in-the-land-and-property-market.html

Current members (~20)

Seven further organisations have joined since the 2023 launch, broadening the group beyond the original 13. Per the DPMSG roadmap (p.1):

Source: source/02-policy-and-positioning/strategic-papers/DPMSG roadmap.pdf p.1

DPMSG working group structure

DPMSG operates through five working groups whose materials we've mirrored from SharePoint. (The 2023 founding announcement named four thematic groups; the current SharePoint reality is five.)

Working group remits

No consolidated Terms of Reference document is in the corpus; the summaries below derive from the working-group folder names and INVENTORY.md descriptions.

• Comms & PR — external messaging, press, and stakeholder communications across the programme.
• Engagement — member outreach and the recurring "OPDA all member update — sandbox project" forum.
• Policy — policy positions, legislative input, and alignment with Smart Data Scheme direction.
• Regulator — coordination with sector regulators (SRA, CLC, CILEx Regulation, RICS, FCA-adjacent bodies).
• Technical — schema, trust framework, and interoperability work feeding the Sandbox.

Note: source/04-governance-bodies/working-groups/policy/ is currently empty on the filesystem — no Policy WG materials have been mirrored yet.

Trust & Interoperability steering group (sandbox)

Distinct from DPMSG itself: the sandbox project's Trust & Interoperability steering group is co-chaired by Tom Treadwell (MHCLG) and Maria Harris (OPDA). This sub-group steers the technical trust and interoperability strand of the Sandbox programme, not the wider DPMSG.

Source: DPMSG-Smart-Property-Data-Trust-v2.pdf p.6

Decision-making

Working-group transcripts capture the actual decisions and rationale:

• Engagement WG: 4 "OPDA all member update — sandbox project" meeting transcripts (Feb–May 2026)
• Steering Group: 5 DPMSG Trust & Interoperability Steering Group meeting transcripts

Smart Data Council

DSIT-hosted, cross-sector advisory body for the wider Smart Data Scheme. Maria Harris (OPDA Chair) is a member — visibility OPDA gets between property and adjacent sectors (energy, finance, telecoms).

HBSG — Home Buying and Selling Group

Industry coordination body chaired by Kate Faulkner OBE. Custodian of BASPI — the Buyer and Seller Property Information data set (currently v4, with v5 in development). PDTF's baspi.json and baspi5.json overlays implement BASPI. Maria Harris (OPDA Chair) is a member.

Note: the DPMSG roadmap PDF (p.1) renders this body as "HBSC" (Council), but every other primary source — the gov.uk founding article, the OPDA Briefing Pack, OPDA's own website, and homebuyingandsellinggroup.co.uk — uses HBSG (Group). Treated as the same body throughout this knowledge base.

Where OPDA sits among these