Glossary of terms

Key terms

• Approved Data Standard: A term defined in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, section 84(3). “Approved data standards”, in relation to planning data, are such written standards, containing technical specifications or other requirements in relation to the data, or in relation to providing or processing the data, as may be published by an appropriate authority from time to time.
• Candidate Data Specification:

  Users have had the opportunity to test these specifications to confirm they include the required data and that we understand as far as possible the impacts on users conforming to the specification.

  We expect these specifications to remain largely unchanged with only monor revisions anticipated. These form the technical specification input to the ‘approved data standards’.

• Composite [data] specificications: These are combinations of modular specifications that serve a specific use case / definition.
• Data Specification: Also known as ‘Technical Specification’ A formal document that defines how data should be structured and formatted.
• Data standard: A general term refering to an assembled collection of data components that uniformly describe data according to the expectations of all data users. This enables consistency and clarity. See What are data standards
• Declarative Model:

  A declarative model has a formal structure and rules that computers can easily process and interpret – these are created to automate tasks, allow data exchange, and allow different systems and software to communicate with each other.

  A way of describing data by saying what it should look like, not how to build it. It’s like writing a recipe, not doing the cooking.

  A declarative model is an output from developing the pilot specification.

• Information Model:

  An information model describes what data is required, it is designed to be easily understood by humans, rather than just machines.

  They are usually text-based, use natural language, and have a structure that allows people to read and understand them.

  An information model is the output of developing the working draft specification.

• Interoperability: Data and metadata should be able to be integrated and exchanged between different systems, applications, and workflows
• Modular [data] Specifications: Also known as componant [data] specifications, These are individual data elements that can be defined and then used to build different composite specifications.
• Open data: Data that anyone can access, use or share. See What is Open data
• Open Data Standards Community: The community group that supports the co-creation of data specifications with the data design team.
• Open source: Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution
• Pilot Data Specification:

  These specifications are being tested with with users to ensure they work with their processes, are able to represent existing data, and meet their needs.

  A pilot specification could change as we undertake further testing.

• Technical Specification: See data specification
• Working draft Specifications:

  These specifications are currently being developed to meet the user needs we are uncovering.

  We expect these specifications to evolve as we learn more about user needs and the data landscape.

Stages of our process (as of 2024)

• screening: A first assessment of a planning consideration to help us assess the value of adding it to planning.data.gov.uk
• researching: A step in our standards design process to make sure we understand the users, what they need from the data and any potential legal issues
• co-designing: A step in our standards design process where we work alongside data providers to create a data standard
• test and iterate: A step in our process where we test with users and make changes based on their feedback
• go/no-go: A step in our standards design process where we decide whether or not to proceed
• prepared for platform: A step in our standards design process where we have prepared the information needed by data operations ready for them to add a new dataset to planning.data.gov.uk