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Title: Electronic Transfer of Notices (EToN 4)

Subject: Local Government Services

Status: draft
Published Date: 31/10/2007
Version: 1.0
Description: These are the revised versions of the Electronic Transfer of Notices (EToN 4) schemas originally published on 17/09/2007. The schemas have not changed in substance, only in detail. Changes have resulted from corrections and changes to the legislation. The resultant changes that have been made to the schemas fall into the following broad categories:
Finalising the WSDL format to be used for the web services associated with the transmission of schemas
Minor amendments to element names, element annotation and associated enumeration lists
Changing the Notice names in the schema to make sure they align with the Notice names in the technical document
Removing those Notices from the schemas that now become active at a later stage in the legislation
Removing some elements from notices that will only be required at a later stage of the legislation
Correcting some mandatory / optional and element occurrence issues.
A more detailed log of the changes is available from John Brown.

A revised technical specification for EToN 4 is available on the DfT website at: PDF: Electronic Transfer of Notices (on www.dft.gov.uk).

All Utility works in the public highway in England and Wales (street works) must be carried out in accordance with the requirements of the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA) and associated secondary legislation. NRSWA prescribes various formal notices which statutory undertakers (i.e. utility companies mainly) must serve on street authorities. To date this process has been supported by a simple, Internet-based system known as EToN (Electronic Transfer of Notices) involving exchange of CSV batch files via FTP. EToN-compliant notice management systems are used by all statutory undertakers and local highway authorities (and others) in England and Wales. The majority of systems are supplied by a small number of commercial software vendors, and the remainder have been developed in-house. EToN has evolved through two major revisions to meet changes in street works legislation and has been extended to support two-way exchange of data.

The Traffic Management Act 2004 substantially amended NRSWA, resulting in fundamental changes to the noticing regime and the requirements for EToN. As part of the specification for the new system (EToN 4) a decision was taken by the Department for Transport (DfT) to move to XML web services. The new regulations will come into force on 1 April 2008 in England and EToN 4-compliant web services and applications must be in operation by then.

The resulting EToN 4 protocol comprises XML data schemas and web service WSDL for exchanging notifications between works promoter and authority systems. EToN 4 web services will support secure delivery of all notifications (i.e. notices from works promoters, and notices, directions and restrictions from street authorities) plus other transactions to support the operation of EToN, e.g. exchange of organisational data. An additional web service (involving return of data) is also defined for testing and troubleshooting purposes. Over 30 different notification types are supported initially using 3 data schemas.

The scope of EToN 4 will be gradually extended as the implementation of the TMA continues over the next few years.

Public consultation on the current draft of the schema clsoed on 11th December and teh adoption process was completed on 20 December. However, the status of this schema remains as draft as further changes are expected as TMA implementation continues.
   

This schema can be downloaded in the following formats: