Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) Publication Policy: Data User Guide

This document has been developed to help explain how OCDS works and how the data can be accessed from Sell2Wales.

Sell2Wales is the Welsh national advertising portal which provides suppliers with free access to contract opportunities. The publication of data at https://sell2wales.gov.wales  aims to ensure that information from notices relating to public procurement in Wales are accessible online to Open Contracting Data Standards (OCDS). This means the data can be used, reused and redistributed by any interested party in line with the Open Government License.

1. Purpose of publication

The data on Sell2Wales is published in line with the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS).  There are three concepts behind the OCDS:

• Open Contracting is about publishing and using open, accessible and timely information on public contracting to engage citizens and businesses to fix problems and deliver results. These results include improving the efficiency, effectiveness and integrity of a public contracting system.
• Open Data is data that can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose. This requires data to be accessible and machine-readable, and for permission to be granted for reuse.
• A Data Standard defines the structure and meaning of data in order to resolve ambiguity and help systems and people interpret it. The latest OCDS JSON Schema is available on the Open Contracting Partnership website.

The OCDS builds on all three of these concepts, and the ultimate goal of the OCDS is to help deliver open contracting using standardized open data. The OCDS describes how to publish data and documents for the procurement of goods, works, and services. It makes contracting data available for anyone to use, modify, and share, for any purpose. It was created to support organisations to increase transparency, and allow deeper analysis of contracting data by a wide range of users.

Additional information can be found on the Open Contracting Data Standard — Open Contracting Data Standard 1.1.5 documentation (open-contracting.org)

2. Publication details

Accessing the data

Sell2Wales makes OCDS data available via number of means to meet the needs of different users. The following are available directly from the Sell2Wales website.

Further Information

• Each notice is also available as webpage and users are able to download individually in PDF or html
• The API documentation can be found here
• The bulk download files are segmented as follows: Month and year when the notice was published. A full calendar month of notices will be returned.

Sell2Wales

Sell2Wales provides open contracting data to support exploration and use of contracting data at the following url:

 https://sell2wales.gov.wales

The portal provides a search function and filters to allow users to explore the different procurement lifecycle stages of the contracting process. Users can search and filter on:

• Keywords
• Buyer name
• OCID
• Reference number
• Notice type
• Location
• Category
• Sub-category
• Published date

The data provided in OCDS is a direct mapping from the OJEU Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) system, as per the guidance on the OCDS website. 

Links to relevant datasets

The Welsh Government also releases other datasets and information that data users may find useful in the context of our OCDS publications on https://statswales.gov.wales/Catalogue

3. Data scope

4. List of extensions

5. Responsibility, contact and feedback

Sell2Wales is responsible for this OCDS publication but please note that they are not responsible for the data entered by the buyer.  If you have any questions about a specific procurement exercise, please contact the buyer listed on the notice.

Please send any feedback via the feedback form on Sell2Wales. Alternatively, get in touch via the following telephone number: 0800 222 9004

We welcome feedback on our open data and encourage data users and members of the public to get in touch with ideas of how to improve our open data sets.

When you provide feedback, we will be in touch to acknowledge your message and may follow up with any clarifications if necessary. After discussing your feedback we may contact you to let you know what actions are being taken.

6. License

The data on Sell2Wales is licensed using the Open Government License.

This allows users to:

• copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information;
• adapt the Information;
• exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application.

7. Additional information

You may find the following additional information useful:

• https://statswales.gov.wales
• Open Contracting Partnership
• OCDS schema

8. Disclaimer

Access to the Sell2Wales does not imply that The Welsh Government or Proactis has verified the veracity, accuracy, adequacy, suitability, completeness and timeliness of the information provided through our site. Procurement data is provided by buying entities.  We cannot guarantee that data provided by the different entities contributing to OCDS data is kept up-to-date. The information contained in the documents accompanying the procurement process are digitalisations of the documents sent by buying entities, any publication constitutes a faithful and complete compilation of the document issued by the official entity, without additions, deletions or corrections of any nature. The Welsh Government is not responsible for the decisions taken from the information disseminated in Sell2Wales or for possible damages caused to the visiting user or to third parties due to actions that are based solely on the information obtained on the site.