EML
Paul Spencer is an active member of the OASIS Technical Committee, and developed the XML Schemas for EML and the means of customising the schemas for various types of elections. He also developed the customisations for UK public election pilots and for the online electoral registers (CORE) project.
Case Studies
- UK e-GIF
- Danish InfostructureBase
- Trinidad and Tobago e-GIF
- MIAP Common Data Definitions
- HMRC File by Internet
- Co-ordinated Online Record of Electors
- MOD XML Policies
Clients
- Cabinet Office e-Government Unit
- Department for Constitutional Affairs
- Department for Education and Skills
- HM Revenue and Customs
- Learning and Skills Council
- Microsoft
- Ministry of Defence
- National Westminster Bank
- NHS Information Authority
- NHS in Scotland
- Office of Government Commerce
- Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
- Office of the e-Envoy
- Open University
- SchlumbergerSema
- Scottish Executive
Papers
- From Spreadsheet to Schema
- A Technical Standard for e-Voting
- Combining OASIS Standards to Create a Repository and Assembly Mechanism for XML Schema Components
- The Election Markup Language
- e-Government in the UK
- Developing e-GIF Compliant XML Systems For Government
- e-Government in the UK
- XML: the relevance to e-government
- Using XML in Government
- Delivering New Electronic Services in the Public Sector
- e-Gov and XML Government Advanced Technology
- Delivering New Electronic Services in the Public Sector
Books
- XML for the Web
- Professional XSL
- Beginning XML
- Professional XML Design and Implementation
Case Study - HMRC File by Internet
Project Scope
In 1999, the Inland Revenue (now HMRC) started a project to allow online filing of personal and corporate tax returns. Software developers were involved from the start of the project so that return could be filed either through the Inland Revenue web site or by direct filing from payroll and tax preparation software. The tax returns use an XML data format.
In the first year, XML schemas were developed using a Microsoft predecessor to the XML Schema language. Returns were sent directly to the Inland Revenue web site. By the second year, the W3C XML Schema language was in a draft form, and this was used, prior to full migration to XML Schema once this was released. Meanwhile, the Government Gateway was being developed, and the FBI services were in the first batch to migrate to this piece of national infrastructure.
Project Description
Boynings Consulting was involved from the start of the project, advising the Inland Revenue on its strategy for the adoption of XML and developing schemas for the Self Assessment (personal tax return) service. We also liaised with third party software developers to gain their agreement to the schemas, and tested products that were submitting PAYE returns. Each year, the Inland Revenue published spreadsheets of test cases, and we developed tools to transform these spreadsheets into XML messages complying with the Self Assessment schemas.
There was significant technology change during the first few years, after which our role became more a maintenance task, updating the schemas each year according to changes in the tax rules, producing new test cases and offering general advice and training.
This project is typical of many where we have started by providing advice on the use of XML and moved onto training staff and developing schemas.
We are an XML Spy training partner.
Please email for more information.