Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what progress has been made on requiring government data and functionality to be exposed through application programming interfaces; and what the timetable is for mandatory e-invoicing by government suppliers.

The Government has been working to define the detailed form of the API mandate announced in the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government. We intend to publish this mandate, including requirements on exposing data and functionality where necessary, in early 2027 following a pilot phase working with a selection of public sector organisations.

As announced at Budget 2025, the government will require all VAT invoices to be issued in a specified electronic format from April 2029, known as “e-invoicing”. An Implementation Roadmap will be published at Budget 2026 which will provide more clarity on the timelines.