Re: Why did it split into two in the first place? Answer enclosed
Whatever happened to government's commitment to using ODF V1.2?
see: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-open-document-formats-odf-in-your-organisation
The Open Standards Board has selected the ODF 1.2 standard for use across government. The government chose ODF 1.2 because it:- is an open standard that allows suppliers to create interoperable office productivity solutions
- allows stricter security checks to help prevent common cyber-attack scenarios
- can lower IT costs as ODF is either low cost or free to use
- allows the government and citizens, businesses and other organisations to share documents
- allows government staff to share and edit documents
- is compatible with a wide range of software including assistive technology
- can add digital signatures to a document
- has a powerful generic metadata system
Note the bit about across government. In my book that includes local government. So no more bloody .docx documents you lot!