Site content realignment: DVSTF/SPDTF terminology, UK-initiative chart, standards alignment, and the MHCLG roadmap
Context and Problem Statement
A stakeholder review by Maria Harris identified a batch of content corrections the public OPDA site (opda.org.uk) needs so that its terminology, governance diagrams, and external-standards references are accurate and aligned to the live UK Smart Data / Smart Property landscape — in particular ahead of surfacing the MHCLG Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap announcement.
The corrections fall into five threads:
- Trust-framework terminology drift. The site still uses DIATF (“Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework”), which the government has renamed. It should read DVSTF (Digital Verification Services Trust Framework).
- Schema-to-scheme authority drift. Version-numbered draft-scheme references must not be presented as an OPDA-endorsed predecessor or as the former name of SPDTF. The existing body of work is the PDTF schema and its supporting material; SPDTF (Smart Property Data Trust Framework) is the first collaboratively authored scheme draft.
- Errors in the UK-initiative governance chart (
/governance/uk-initiative): the Smart Data Council is mis-placed, an acronym is wrong, and a now-unwanted reference appears in the delivery tier. - Forward-looking standards references (claims, Verifiable Credentials, API specs) that currently lean on unratified draft technical-scheme material / the legacy propdata.org.uk developer site must instead align to the collaboratively authored SPDTF work and to the Smart Data Guidebook (draft) and/or the established Open Banking (Open Banking Ltd / Open Banking future entity) and Open Energy (Icebreaker One — Perseus) standards.
- The MHCLG announcement (Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap, gov.uk) is not yet represented. It should appear as its own page in the strategy “Wider context” section beneath the UK Industrial Strategy, and the Industrial Strategy page’s “Reading list” should be promoted to its own page and extended with the DBT Smart Data Strategy, the Economic Impact Analysis, and the MHCLG consultation response + roadmap.
Decision Drivers
- Public-facing accuracy: the site is referenced by government and industry stakeholders; stale acronyms and superseded spec names undermine credibility.
- Provenance hygiene: forward-looking technical claims must not silently inherit unratified draft technical-scheme content or content from the legacy propdata.org.uk site (the latter carries OPDA copyright but was neither authored nor approved by OPDA — see the companion ADR).
- Alignment to the federated Smart Data direction: OPDA is one scheme provider among Open Banking / Open Energy; references should point at the cross-scheme canon (Smart Data Guidebook, DSIT Digital Verification Services).
- Timeliness: the MHCLG roadmap is a live, citable government output and the most authoritative anchor for the initiative.
Considered Options
- Apply the corrections as a single coordinated content pass — sweep the terminology, fix the chart, re-scope the standards references, and add the MHCLG/reading-list pages together, recorded under one ADR.
- Defer the standards-alignment thread (4) as a separate workstream, applying only the mechanical fixes (terminology, chart, new pages) now.
- Do nothing / piecemeal edits without a recorded decision.
Decision Outcome
Chosen option: “Apply the corrections as a single coordinated content pass.” The threads are interdependent (the terminology swap touches the same pages as the chart and standards edits) and share one stakeholder source, so a single ADR + one implementation pass keeps them coherent. Thread 4 (standards alignment) is the only thread with an external dependency (Guidebook / Perseus access); it proceeds on the parts that can be done now and records the rest as a tracked open question rather than blocking the batch.
Implementation tasks
Thread 1 — DIATF → DVSTF. Replace every reference to “DIATF” and the expansion “Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework” (and “Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework”) with DVSTF / “Digital Verification Services Trust Framework”. Known occurrences (verify exhaustively at implementation time): src/pages/glossary.astro, src/pages/modelling/standards-stack.astro, src/pages/library/external-references.astro, src/pages/modelling/bounded-contexts.astro, src/pages/governance/{departments,index,toip-governance,legislation,strategic-alignment,uk-initiative}.astro, src/pages/strategy/{index,industrial-strategy}.astro, docs/linked-data-initiative/02-linked-data-model-architecture.md, docs/ontology/odr/ODR-0020-*.md, docs/manual/**, source/03-standards/ontology/opda-contexts.ttl.
- Scope guard: do NOT edit anything under
source/07-website/related-domains/propdata.org.uk/(archived third-party snapshot — see companion ADR) and treat the ontology corpus (source/03-standards/ontology/**) carefully — a corpus edit requires the full ontology CI gates +build:datamodel regeneration. If a.ttlglossary/scope-note edit is in scope, runmake ci-ontologyand regeneratesrc/data/ontology-model.json. - Update the glossary entry itself (definition + acronym) so the canonical definition leads.
Thread 2 — PDTF schema → SPDTF scheme. Correct maintained site pages so they describe the existing PDTF schema and schema-derived ontology as attributed inputs, and SPDTF as the first collaboratively authored scheme draft: src/pages/modelling/{shacl-shapes,ontology,bounded-contexts,standards-stack}.astro, src/pages/glossary.astro, src/pages/governance/{data-stewardship,strategic-alignment,uk-initiative}.astro, src/pages/strategy/project-roadmap.astro.
- Preserve immutable source artefacts, stable technical identifiers and factual transcripts. Living ADR/ODR decisions and active plans must be amended when their wording would otherwise imply endorsement or a false version succession; record the correction in a dated amendment rather than leaving contradictory authority claims active.
- Do NOT edit
source/03-standards/trust-framework/**(the imported PDTF spec is an upstream artefact in a nested git repo).
Thread 3 — UK-initiative chart corrections (src/pages/governance/uk-initiative.astro):
- Smart Data Council — remove from the Tier 3 box (the “five tiers at a glance”
flowchart TB, currentlyT3 … Smart Data Council · HBSG) and reposition it between Tier 1 and Tier 2, or as an offshoot of Tier 1, framed as the engagement entity for Legislation & Policy. Reflect the same correction in the detailed Tier-3flowchart LRand surrounding prose where the Council is described as a Tier-3 forum. - HBSG → HBSC — rename every occurrence (the two flowcharts, edge labels
OPDA -.represented on.-> HBSG/HBSG -.feeds BASPI into.-> OPDA, and prose/table cells). Confirm the intended expansion of HBSC with the stakeholder. - Tier 4 box — remove the “Smart Data Challenge” reference from the T4 box (
Smart Data Challenge · HMLR LLC Programme→HMLR LLC Programme). (Broader Smart Data Challenge / Moverly references elsewhere on the page are handled by the companion ADR.) - Diagrams are authored bare per the project Mermaid convention — keep
:::paletteNameclasses, do not hardcode theme.
Thread 4 — Forward-looking standards references. Audit references to emerging/future standards for claims, Verifiable Credentials, and API specs and re-anchor them away from unratified draft technical-scheme and propdata.org.uk content toward: (a) SPDTF work authored collaboratively by OPDA stakeholders; (b) the Smart Data Guidebook (draft); and/or (c) Open Banking (Open Banking Ltd / future entity) and Open Energy (Icebreaker One — Perseus, open source) standards.
- Open question / external dependency: Guidebook draft-chapter access and the Open Finance standards/architecture from Open Banking are pending (the stakeholder will supply the Guidebook chapters as documents if direct access fails; Perseus is open source and reachable). Implement re-anchoring only where the target canon is available; flag the remainder in the deferred-work register rather than inventing alignment.
Thread 5 — MHCLG roadmap + reading list:
- Add a new page for the MHCLG Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap announcement, sourced from gov.uk (
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform/outcome/home-buying-and-selling-reform-roadmap). The PDF is committed atsource/08-external-references/uk-government/MHCLG-Home-Buying-and-Selling-Reform-Roadmap.pdf(62pp) — link it via the project resource viewer (/resource?path=source/08-external-references/uk-government/MHCLG-Home-Buying-and-Selling-Reform-Roadmap.pdf). Surface the page as a card in the strategy “Wider context” grid (src/pages/strategy/index.astro) positioned directly beneath the UK Industrial Strategy card. - Promote the Industrial Strategy “Reading list” (
src/pages/strategy/industrial-strategy.astro#readingList) into its own page, linked from where the section currently sits, and extend it with: DBT Smart Data Strategy (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c11f9ed588c92c483e4b66/smart-data-strategy.pdf— not yet committed; download intosource/08-external-references/uk-government/and link locally, or cite the gov.uk URL), Economic Impact Analysis (already committed atsource/08-external-references/uk-government/understanding-the-costs-and-benefits-of-smart-data-use-cases-research-report.pdf— link locally), and the MHCLG consultation response + roadmap (the roadmap PDF above).
Consequences
- Good, because the public site stops citing renamed or unendorsed frameworks and stale forward-looking claims, improving credibility with government and industry stakeholders.
- Good, because the MHCLG roadmap — the most authoritative current anchor — becomes a first-class, citable page.
- Good, because forward-looking standards references are re-pointed at the federated Smart Data canon rather than unratified legacy content.
- Neutral, because the acronym and authority corrections are wide-reaching; care is needed to preserve factual provenance and upstream/nested-repo artefacts while keeping living decisions accurate.
- Bad, because Thread 4 cannot be fully completed until the Smart Data Guidebook chapters and Open Banking Open Finance materials are available, leaving a tracked residue.
Confirmation
grep -rEi "DIATF|Digital Identity (and|&) Attributes Trust Framework"oversrc/returns no live-page hits (archivedsource/07-website/related-domains/**and dated ADR/ODR records excluded).- Maintained public source contains no version-numbered predecessor/successor framing; it uses PDTF schema, schema-derived ontology and SPDTF according to their distinct authority.
/governance/uk-initiativerenders with the Smart Data Council at Tier 1↔2, “HBSC” throughout, and no “Smart Data Challenge” in the Tier 4 box./strategyshows an MHCLG roadmap card beneath the Industrial Strategy card; the reading list resolves as its own page containing the four added documents.make testgreen;make buildclean for the edited pages; if any ontology.ttlwas touched,make ci-ontologygreen andsrc/data/ontology-model.jsonregenerated.
More Information
- Stakeholder source: Maria Harris (site review). Companion decision: ADR-0052 (stakeholder-review remediation — member parity, propdata.org.uk provenance, Moverly, accreditation gaps), which shares this review’s provenance and overlaps on the propdata.org.uk and Smart Data Challenge / Moverly threads.
- Terminology expansions: DVSTF = Digital Verification Services Trust Framework (the government rename of DIATF under the DSIT digital-verification regime); SPDTF = Smart Property Data Trust Framework, the first scheme draft being written collaboratively across industry and stakeholders. SPDTF is not a rebrand or numbered successor to an OPDA-endorsed predecessor scheme. The existing technical input is the PDTF schema and its separately identified schema-derived ontology.
- External sources:
- MHCLG roadmap (gov.uk): https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform/outcome/home-buying-and-selling-reform-roadmap — local copy:
Home buying and selling reform roadmap 3.pdf. - DBT Smart Data Strategy: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69c11f9ed588c92c483e4b66/smart-data-strategy.pdf
- Economic Impact Analysis: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a2194968e85b4e5346abf72/understanding-the-costs-and-benefits-of-smart-data-use-cases-research-report.pdf
- MHCLG roadmap (gov.uk): https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/home-buying-and-selling-reform/outcome/home-buying-and-selling-reform-roadmap — local copy:
- Pending external inputs (Thread 4): Smart Data Guidebook draft chapters (stakeholder to supply if direct access unavailable); Open Banking Open Finance standards/architecture (awaited); Icebreaker One — Perseus (Open Energy, open source).
Amendments
- 2026-08-22 — Chair-authority terminology correction. Maria Harris, OPDA Chair, clarified that the earlier version-numbered draft technical scheme was not created collaboratively and was not endorsed by OPDA. This living decision therefore no longer describes SPDTF as a rename or version successor. The existing corpus is the PDTF schema and its supporting material; the extracted ontology is a separate schema-derived artefact; SPDTF is the first collaboratively authored scheme draft. The programme transition is schema to scheme. Immutable sources, transcripts and technical identifiers retain their historical provenance.
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