LDF accreditation

In order to ensure technical standards are maintained, the Portal operates an accreditation process with suppliers who are working in or intending to work in the areas of producing or publishing LDFs.

Any supplier who wishes to produce or publish LDF’s must be accredited. Any supplier who meets the required standards as outlined below can be accredited.

Benefits of accreditation to suppliers

The Planning Portal LDF accreditation scheme allows suppliers to receive a certificate of accreditation and logos for use on their marketing material.

Benefits of accreditation for LPAs

• The Planning Portal remains an authoritative source of information through producing and publishing content in a consistent format.
• Accredited suppliers agree to meet specified standard for electronic publication of LDFs.
• The Planning Portal will publish an up-to-date list of accredited suppliers which LPAs can search when selecting suppliers to tender for work in this area.

Accredited Suppliers

View a list of accredited LDF Suppliers here.

The accreditation process

There are two levels of accreditation; Foundation Level and Full Accreditation.

In order to become an LDF Foundation Level accredited supplier, the following steps will need to be successfully completed:

1. Supplier agrees to format LDF material in XML following the PARSOL LDF schema (ZIP 2 Mb)

2. Supplier agrees to follow additional guidelines described in 'Section 8 - What You Should NOT Supply' of the 'LDF Schema - Authoring Guidelines (Version 0.1)' (PDF 92 Kb).

3. Supplier provides the Portal with an example XML file based on this sample document (DOC 251 Kb).

There is no fee charged for accreditation.

Submit your own version by email to:

accreditation@planningportal.gov.uk

(Please also attach details of your name, company's name and contact details and insert the appropriate text as detailed below).

If your company provides software which is used by your customers to produce documents formatted according to the schema, then use the following text:
 
"I agree that our software will format LDF material in XML following the PARSOL LDF schema and the additional guidelines described in 'Section 8 - What you should NOT supply' of the 'LDF schema - Authoring Guidelines (Version 0.1)'. Please find the sample document attached."
 
Alternatively if your company receives documents from your customers and you provide a service which reformats it accouding to the PARSOL LDF schema and additional guidelines then use the following text:
 
"I agree to format LDF material in XML following the PARSOL LDF schema and the additional guidelines described in 'Section 8 - What you should NOT supply' of the 'LDF schema - Authoring Guidelines (Version 0.1)'.  Please find the sample document attached."

Terms and conditions

• Full Accreditation level will be awarded to a Foundation Level accredited supplier once they have met the criteria above, and also demonstrated to the satisfaction of the Planning Portal that they have a successful publishing partnership in this area with three "live" clients.
• The Planning Portal reserves the right to amend the criteria and standards. Any amendments will be notified to fully accredited and foundation level suppliers.
• The Planning Portal will monitor both fully accredited and foundation level supplier’s compliance with the criteria and standards.
• If a supplier is not accredited or does not continue to meet standards once accredited, the document will be rejected by the Planning Portal.
• Local Planning Authorities are strongly encouraged to use accredited (or provisionally accredited) suppliers.
• Compliance with the criteria is an ongoing obligation and failure to maintain standards will result in either a reduction of accreditation status or removal of foundation level accreditation status.