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HISTORY.md

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+# Register updates
+## Beta12. Register moves into beta
+April 2017
+
+The government organisations register moved into beta on the 26th April 2017 and is now available to use.
+Alpha11. Review feedback from alpha
+April 2017
+
+We received a lot of valuable feedback on the alpha government organisations register. The majority of the feedback can be grouped under the following topics:
+
+    Including acronyms: For example, HMRC and MOJ. While we recognise that this would be useful we have decided not to include it in the register for now as it isn’t something the custodian has responsibility for maintaining. However, we have created an abbreviations map file that services can use if they need to map government organisation names to their mostly commonly known abbreviation. We are also developing a picker tool that will allow users to draw from register data but also add their own synonyms, which could include abbreviations as well as common misspellings or any other synonyms.
+
+    Adding hierarchy: for example, parent organisations or crown bodies. Due to the complexity surrounding the hierarchy of government organisations - as explained in the register’s alpha blog post - we have decided against adding this for now. Also, as the process for recognising and providing crown body status is managed separately this would need to be another register, with another custodian responsible for maintaining the data.
+
+    Adding classifications: We are working with ONS to look at how they produce their current publication on the classification of public bodies and may produce a separate register with them in future.
+
+We have not changed the shape of the register during alpha.
+
+The register lists all of the government organisations that have a presence on GOV.UK except courts and tribunals, which we plan to make separate registers of in future.
+## Alpha10. Alpha register is open to feedback
+March 2017
+
+The government organisations register has moved into alpha and is open for feedback. A blog post highlighting the key decisions made during the register’s discovery phase, and requesting feedback on the alpha register, was published on the GDS data blog.
+## Discovery9. Meet technical standards
+February 2017
+
+The government organisation register will be hosted on the Open Register platform, which conforms to the technical standards.
+Discovery8. Meet operational standards
+February 2017
+
+The government organisation register will be hosted on the Open Register platform and so conforms to the operational standards.
+Discovery7. Review how register is updated
+February 2017
+
+For the alpha register, any updates that are required will be made by the GDS registers team following agreement by the register’s custodian.
+Discovery6. Review how feedback is collected
+February 2017
+
+There will be a link to provide feedback at the top of each page of the alpha government organisations register. All feedback will be sent to the registers team at GDS. Both the registers team and the custodian will respond to feedback, depending on whether it relates to the registers product or the data.
+Discovery5. Find duplicate lists
+February 2017
+
+A total of 34 lists that contain government organisation data where identified and looked at in the process of creating the alpha government organisation register. A report that shows the lists identified when creating this register is available here: Government organisations register data report
+Discovery4. Agree dataset
+February 2017
+
+It was agreed that the following fields would feature in the register:
+
+    Government-organisation: The code representing a Government-Organisation
+    Name: Government Organisations name.
+    Website: Government Organisations website.
+    Start-date: The date a record first became relevant to a register.
+    End-date: The date a record stopped being applicable.
+
+The register will not include any hierarchy of classification of public bodies at this time.
+Discovery3. Agree a custodian
+December 2016
+
+Neil Williams, Head of GOV.UK, will be the custodian of the government organisations register as GOV.UK already publishes a list of government organisations.
+
+To ensure the custodian is only responsible for data they maintain, the scope of the register has been narrowed to a list of government organisations that have a presence on GOV.UK.
+Backlog2. Register is accepted
+October 2016
+
+Government organisation register was approved for delivery by Paul Downey at GDS.
+Backlog1. Request a register
+October 2016
+
+The government organisation register was proposed by Paul Downey from the registers team at GDS.
+
+* Managed by: Cabinet Office
+* Custodian: Neil Williams
+* Register: https://government-organisation.register.gov.uk/