Who developed these standards?
The Data standards for Western Australian government were created in 2021 by an inter-agency working group comprised of 12 Western Australian agencies.
They were approved by the Business and Technology Advisory Committee (BATAC) in February 2022 and ratified by the Directors General Information and Communications Technology (DG ICT) Council in March 2022.
As much as is possible, these standards conform to already existing standards developed by other Australian jurisdictions and data standard setting bodies (e.g. the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare and the Australian Bureau of Statistics).
Do agencies need to collect all of the data in the standards list?
Agencies are not required to start collecting data not already collected. The standards should be applied to existing data holdings, or the establishment of new data holdings.
Are agencies expected to collect and store their data according to these standards?
Agencies are not required to invest in additional systems for the sole purpose of conforming to these standards.
Agencies are expected to configure new or upgraded systems to align with the new standards where feasible, subject to budget and market considerations. This will mean over the long-term, more government data is captured and stored according to these standards.
When an agency requests data from another agency, will agencies be expected to share all fields in this list?
Agencies are not required to share any additional data outside of their data sharing agreements. These standards promote the sharing of higher quality, better documented, and more consistent data when a data sharing agreement includes any of these items.
Is adherence to these standards optional or mandatory?
Agencies will need to adhere to these standards when they share data with others - either ‘in transit’ or after extraction.
Furthermore, agencies are expected to consider these standards when replacing or upgrading core systems. They are expected to capture and store data according to these standards where feasible, and where doing so does not have a large impact on cost or market options.
Which systems have to adhere to these standards?
Agency systems which collect and store data which may be of decision-making value to another agency should adhere to these standards.
Inward facing systems are not required to collect data in conformance with these standards.
How will the standards be kept up-to-date?
The standards will be reviewed by the working group periodically. This process will incorporate relevant updates from any of the national reference standards, as well as changes resulting from agency feedback on the practical use of the standards.
My agency has additional data fields that we would like to include in the standards. How can we contribute?
We (Office of Digital Government at the Department of the Premier and Cabinet) are stewards of the standards. We encourage agency-lead contributions to extend the standards beyond the core whole-of-government fields. If you have data fields specific to your agency and would like to standardise them, we are happy to assist with guidance on the standardisation process and to connect you with your fellow agencies to undertake a consultation process. We’ll then happily publish the resulting standard.
