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Shapefile, TAB and GPKG

Source of Boundary-Line

The original data sources used for the creation of Boundary-Line was Ordnance Survey’s 1:10 000 scale boundary record sheets and OS Landplan digital data.

The data sources now used are Ordnance Survey’s Topographic Data for Natural Changes and Orders, Acts and Statutory Instruments (SIs).

Update currency

Boundary-Line is updated twice a year, in spring and autumn. The updated product is a full replacement for all the listed administrative and electoral boundaries. The represented boundaries and administrative unit names are defined and modified by Orders, Acts and Statutory Instruments (SIs). Changes that are operative from the first week of May in the current year of release will be included. Changes to Westminster constituencies that are effective from the date of the next general election will be included as separate files.

In exceptional circumstances due to processing or constitutional constraints, Orders, Acts and Statutory Instruments may be excluded until the next suitable release.

Superseded boundaries

Boundaries are no longer shown in Boundary-Line if they have been superseded at the time of the annual snapshot of boundaries that each release of Boundary-Line represents.

Government Statistical Service codes

Revisions to Government Statistical Service (GSS) codes are incorporated into Boundary-Line as soon as practicable after the information is made available to Ordnance Survey.

Tide lines and rivers

Additional coastline reconciliation with the OS Landplan product was introduced in May 2005. Changes to the Boundary-Line tide lines, plus natural and gradual changes to rivers and streams, have been implemented alongside the previous boundary/coast association to enhance the MHW FC0071.

All boundary alignment changes in Boundary-Line will be reported in the Release Note accompanying each release of Boundary-Line.

Resolution

The resolution of the coordinate system is 0.1 m. However, it is not possible to calculate meaningful accuracy limits for Boundary-Line data due to both the graphic nature and scale of the primary source 1:10 000 scale published mapping. Such mapping is subject to limited map generalisation, where an impression of the ground detail is made due to the complexity of the detail and importance of certain features such as roads. This means that boundary alignments are cartographically represented in areas where accurate positional representation would be impossible.

Boundary-Line is derived from the basic scale of 1:10 000. The relationship of boundaries to ground detail mirrors the accuracy achieved by mapping against OS VectorMap Local (1:10 000 scale) and, in certain cases, large-scale sources. A consequence of this is that if Boundary-Line is superimposed upon boundaries in OS MasterMap topographic data, variations in the two alignments will be seen.

Completeness

Completeness is a measure of the correspondence between the real world and the specified data content. During digitising, all Boundary-Line data is checked thoroughly against source documents to ensure as far as reasonably possible that no features have been omitted or misaligned.

Data properties

Boundary-Line is a structured link and polygon dataset. The data comprises three levels of features:

  1. The administrative unit has attributes that include the administrative unit’s name and GSS code. The administrative unit feature is classified by means of a feature type. It also has explicit pointers to the polygons that define its area.

  2. The polygon includes attributes that define its area value; it also has explicit pointers to the links that chains (or makes up) its edge and may have pointers to holes within the area.

  3. The links have a geometry that defines their shape.

Administrative units, polygons and links are assigned unique identifiers for each release of Boundary-Line.

Data structure

Real-world administrative and voting units are modelled and named and have explicit pointers to the polygons that define their area of influence.

Each real-world administrative or electoral voting unit is classified by means of an area code. The polygons are classified indirectly by the administrative or electoral voting unit collection in which they appear. These polygons within the data model also have associated attributes which give the entities meaning, representing the geometric characteristic of an entity with items such as area or a unique identity.

Boundary links are classified indirectly by the polygon chains in which they appear.

Administrative or electoral voting units, polygons and links are assigned unique identifiers for each release of Boundary-Line.

Area features

Area features are polygons with attributes added.

Link features

Links represent all linear features; that is boundaries, extent of the realm (EOR) and mean high water (springs) mark (MHW). All links are broken when they intersect with one another. The first and last coordinate pairs in a link correspond exactly with the end coordinates of the adjoining link(s). Links may comprise up to several thousand line segments.

Coordinate system

The coordinate system is National Grid (NG). The National Grid coordinates are to a resolution of 0.1 metres. This is the resolution of the source data.

Features - Shapefile, TAB and GPKG

This section details the features for ESRI Shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage only. Please see GML and Vector Tile for information about working with these formats.

Boundary-Line features

This section describes the features for ESRI shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage which make up the Boundary-Line product, giving the following information about each attribute:

Name and Definition

The name of the attribute and what it is describing.

Condition

A condition associated with the attribute (Optional).

Attribute Type

The nature of the attribute, for example, a numeric value or a code list value.

Multiplicity

Describes how many times this element is expected to be populated in the data. An attribute may be optional or mandatory within the Boundary-Line product. These are denoted by:

  • ‘1’ – Mandatory – There must be a value.

  • ‘0..1’ – Optional – If populated, a maximum of one attribute will be returned.

These values may be used in combination.

Area - Wales region

Area features are polygons with attributes added.

The following schema applies for all area features in the Wales folder of the shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage data supply.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

fid

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: fid (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Name

The name of the community ward.

  • Attribute Name: Name (GPKG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Area description

The classification of the community ward.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Description (GPKG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPTIO (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 3

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Community

The name of the parish_region that the ward is inside.

  • Attribute Name: Community (GPKG), Community (TAB), COMMUNITY (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

File name

The name of district_borough_unitary_region that the community ward is inside; written in UPPERCASE with underscores.

  • Attribute Name: File_Name (GPKG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Layers - Shapefile, TAB and GPKG

The following subsections describe the content of the Shapefile, TAB and GPKG supply.

Link feature type

Links represent all linear features; that is boundaries, extent of the realm (EOR) and mean high water (springs) mark (MHW). All links are broken when they intersect with one another. The first and last coordinate pairs in a link correspond exactly with the end coordinates of the adjoining link(s). Links may comprise up to several thousand line segments.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

fid

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: fid (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Shape

Feature geometry.

  • Attribute Name: Not provided (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Polyline

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Feature code

Code value assigned to the Mean High Water Line polyline. This value will always be set to – 0071 as this is the feature code applicable to a Mean High Water Line feature.

  • Attribute Name: Feature_Code (GPKG), Feature_Code (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 4

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Feature description

Description of the boundary feature. Set to ‘High Water Mark’ (HWM)

  • Attribute Name: Feature_Description (GPKG), Feature_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 21

  • Multiplicity: [1]

File name

Name of the boundary polygon that the line is contained by; written in UPPERCASE with underscores.

The high water mark line is split up by every boundary that it crosses. Where the resulting line is contained in multiple polygons, for the product the same geometry is used for multiple features, with the File_Name referencing the containing boundary polygon, and the same Global_Link_ID used for all of them.

  • Attribute Name: File_Name (GPKG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Feature serial number

Serial number applied to the polyline feature during the production of the product.

In the current product, this is not unique nor maintained.

  • Attribute Name: Feature_Serial_Number (GPKG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Number (Shapefile)

  • Size: n/a (TAB), 11 (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Global link ID

A maintained sequential integer identifier that is unique, except for records with duplicate geometry referencing multiple boundary polygons.

  • Attribute Name: Global_Link_ID (GPKG), Global_Link_ID (TAB), LINK_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Number (Shapefile)

  • Size: n/a (TAB), 11 (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

TypeCode

Value
Description

AA

Civil Administration Area

SR

Statistical Reporting Area

VA

Civil Voting Area

Area - GB

Area features are polygons with attributes added.

The following schema applies to all area features in the GB folder of the shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage data supply, and for all area features in the Supplementary_Country folder of the shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage data supply.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

fid

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: fid (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Shape

Feature geometry.

  • Attribute Name: Not provided (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Polygon

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Name

Name of the administrative area.

  • Attribute Name: Name (GPKG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Area code

A code describing the level.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Code (GPKG), Area_Code (TAB), AREA_CODE (Shapefile)

  • Code List Name: AreaCode

  • Size: 3

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area description

Full name of the Area_Code.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Description (GPKG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPTIO (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 50

  • Multiplicity: [1]

File name

Name of the Principal Area which the boundary sits within.

This may be the same boundary level as the boundary itself, for example, a Greater London Authority boundary will have ‘Greater London Authority’ present in this field. But for more granular boundaries, this field will show the principal boundary which is at the principal level.

  • Attribute Name: File_Name (GPKG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Feature serial number

Serial Number applied to the Boundary Feature during the production of the product.

This is not the unique key for this product and is not maintained.

  • Attribute Name: Feature_Serial_Number (GPKG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Collection serial number

Collection Serial Number applied to the Boundary Feature during the production of the product.

This is not the unique key for this product and is not maintained.

  • Attribute Name: Collection_Serial_Number (GPKG), Collection_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Global polygon ID

A globally unique sequential integer-maintained identifier.

  • Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GPKG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), POLYGON_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Admin unit ID

A globally unique sequential integer-maintained feature identifier. There are two cases where multiple records have the same UNIT_ID:

  1. When portions of local government or parliamentary constituency areas are separated from the main area, being completely surrounded by other local government or parliamentary constituency areas and not connected by direct access on the ground. Not applied to islands or parts of islands in the sea. Detached parts have the same attributes as the main area, except the POLYGON_ID and the Name which has a ‘(DET)’ suffix. In all the existing examples, there is exactly one detached part.

  2. In Scotland, two examples where the boundary has thousands of parts, so the multi-polygon is broken into simple polygons to make it easier to handle. The examples are the supplementary country_region layer where NAME=‘SCOTLAND_COUNTRY’ and scotland_and_wales_region where NAME='Highlands and Islands PER'.

  • Attribute Name: Admin_Unit_ID (GPKG), Admin_Unit_ID (TAB), UNIT_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Census code

Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.

  • Attribute Name: Census_Code (GPKG), Census_Code (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 9

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Hectares

Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.

  • Attribute Name: Hectares (GPKG), Hectares (TAB), HECTARES (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 9

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Non-inland area

Amount of area within the boundary which is not considered ‘inland’. Non-inland areas are calculated by comparing the Boundary-Line polygons with the Mean High Water lines. The value is in hectares and represents the area between the Mean High Water line and the seaward limit of the boundary denoting Mean Low Water.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Inland_Area (GPKG), Non_Inland_Area (TAB), AREA (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Decimal (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 12 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area type code

Code depicting whether the boundary is part of a Civil Administration Area, a Civil Voting Area.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Type_Code (GPKG), Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_CODE (Shapefile)

  • Code List Name: TypeCode

  • Size: 2

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area type description

Full description of TYPE_CODE.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Type_Description (GPKG), Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 25

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Non-area type code

Shouldn’t be populated.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Code (GPKG), Non_Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_COD0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 3

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Non-area type description

Shouldn’t be populated.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Description (GPKG), Non_Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT1 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 36

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Historical and ceremonial boundaries features

There are several supplementary layers included alongside the main Boundary-Line product. These supplementary layers sit separately to the main GB Boundary-Line folder and are included as separate directories in the shapefile and MapInfo TAB file formats.

Features included as supplementary in the supplementary directory are:

  • Historical counties

  • Ceremonial counties

  • Historical European regions (frozen as of 1 April 2021)

  • Country

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

fid

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: fid (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Name

Name of the Ceremonial County, Historic County or Historic European Region.

  • Attribute Name: Name (GPKG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area description

Classification set to Ceremonial County or Historic County or Historic European Region.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Description (GPKG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 50

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Link ID

Boundary polygon.

  • Attribute Name: Not provided (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), LINK_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: GM_Surface

Area - English region

Area features are polygons with attributes added.

The following schema applies for all area features in the english_region_region and english_region layers in the GB folder of the shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage data supply, respectively.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

fid

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: fid (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Shape

Feature geometry.

  • Attribute Name: Not provided (GPKG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Polygon

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Name

Name of the administrative area.

  • Attribute Name: Name (GPKG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Area code

A code describing the level.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Code (GPKG), Area_Code (TAB), AREA_CODE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 3

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area description

Full name of the Area_Code.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Description (GPKG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 50

  • Multiplicity: [1]

File name

Name of the Principal Area which the boundary sits within.

This may be the same boundary level as the boundary itself, for example, a Greater London Authority boundary will have ‘Greater London Authority’ present in this field. But for more granular boundaries, this field will show the principal boundary which is at the principal level.

  • Attribute Name: File_Name (GPKG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Feature serial number

Serial Number applied to the Boundary Feature during the production of the product.

This is not the unique key for this product and is not maintained.

  • Attribute Name: Feature_Serial_Number (GPKG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Collection serial number

Collection Serial Number applied to the Boundary Feature during the production of the product.

This is not the unique key for this product and is not maintained.

  • Attribute Name: Collection_Serial_Number (GPKG), Collection_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Global polygon ID

A globally unique sequential integer-maintained identifier.

  • Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GPKG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), POLYGON_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Admin unit ID

A globally unique sequential integer-maintained feature identifier. There are two cases where multiple records have the same UNIT_ID:

  1. When portions of local government or parliamentary constituency areas are separated from the main area, being completely surrounded by other local government or parliamentary constituency areas and not connected by direct access on the ground. Not applied to islands or parts of islands in the sea. Detached parts have the same attributes as the main area, except the POLYGON_ID and the Name which has a ‘(DET)’ suffix. In all the existing examples, there is exactly one detached part.

  2. In Scotland, two examples where the boundary has thousands of parts, so the multi-polygon is broken into simple polygons to make it easier to handle. The examples are the supplementary country_region layer where NAME=‘SCOTLAND_COUNTRY’ and scotland_and_wales_region where NAME='Highlands and Islands PER'.

  • Attribute Name: Admin_Unit_ID (GPKG), Admin_Unit_ID (TAB), UNIT_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Census code

Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.

  • Attribute Name: Census_Code (GPKG), Census_Code (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 9

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Hectares

Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.

  • Attribute Name: Hectares (GPKG), Hectares (TAB), HECTARES (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 9

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Non-inland area

Amount of area within the boundary which is not considered ‘inland’. Non-Inland Areas are calculated by comparing the Boundary-Line polygons with the Mean High Water lines. The value is in hectares and represents the area between the Mean High Water line and the seaward limit of the boundary denoting Mean Low Water.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Inland_Area (GPKG), Non_Inland_Area (TAB), AREA (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Decimal (TAB), Double (Shapefile)

  • Size: 12 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area type code

Code depicting whether the boundary is part of a Civil Administration Area, a Civil Voting Area.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Type_Code (GPKG), Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_CODE (Shapefile)

  • Code List Name:

  • Size: 2

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Area type description

Full description of TYPE_CODE.

  • Attribute Name: Area_Type_Description (GPKG), Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 25

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Non-area type code

Shouldn’t be populated.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Code (GPKG), Non_Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_COD0 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 3

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Non-area type description

Shouldn’t be populated.

  • Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Description (GPKG), Non_Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT1 (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: Char

  • Size: 36

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

Shapefile

Esri shapefiles are a simple, non-topological format for storing the geometric location and attribute information of geographic features. A shapefile is one of the spatial data formats that you can work with in ArcGIS.

The shapefile format defines the geometry and attributes of geographically referenced features in as many as five files with specific file extensions that should be stored in the same project workspace. The file extensions are as follows:

.shp: The file that stores the feature geometry.

.shx: The file that stores the index of the feature geometry.

.dbf: The dBASE file that stores the attribute information of features. When a shapefile is added as a theme to a view, this file is displayed as a feature table.

.sbn and .sbx: The files that store the spatial index of the features. These two files only exist if you perform theme-on-theme selection, spatial joins or create an index on a theme's SHAPE field.

.prj: The file that stores the projection information.

List of layers

Layer
Country
Description

county_region (inc GLAs)

E

Polygon

county_electoral_division_region

E

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_region

E, S, W

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_ward_region

E, S

Polygon

english_region_region

E

Polygon

greater_london_const_region

E

Polygon

high_water_polyline

E, S, W

Polyline

parish_region

E, S, W

Polygon

unitary_electoral_division_region

E, W

Polygon

westminster_const_region

E, S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_const_region

S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_region

S, W

Polygon

polling_districts_england_region

E

Polygon

Boundary_line_historic_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

community_ward_region

W

Polygon

Boundary_line_ceremonial_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

historic_european_region_region

E, S, W

Polygon

country_region

E, S, W

Polygon

TypeCode

AreaCode

Value
Description

CED

County Electoral Division

CTY GLA

County

DIS LBO MTD

UTA

District Borough Unitary Region

DIW LBW MTW

UTW

District Borough Unitary Ward

ER

English Region

LAC

Greater London Authority Assembly Constituency

CPC NCP

Parish

SPC

Scottish Parliament Constituency

SPE

Scottish Parliament Electoral Region

UTE

Unitary Authority Electoral Division

WPC

Welsh Parliament Constituency

WPE

Welsh Parliament Electoral Region

WMC

Westminster Constituency

Code lists - Shapefile, TAB and GPKG

A code list is a controlled set of allowable labels or codes represented as an alphanumeric attribute. The pages in this section show the code lists used within Boundary Line.

GPKG

GeoPackage (GPKG) is an open, standards-based, data format as is defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy-to-distribute and ready-to-use file. GeoPackage offers users the following benefits:

  • The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end-user a rich experience.

  • Attribute names are not limited in length, making the format user-friendly.

  • The file size limit is very large at 140 TB*, so lots of data can be easily accommodated.

  • It supports raster, vector and database formats, making it a highly versatile solution.

*A file size limit might be imposed by the file system to which the file is written.

List of layers

Layer
Country
Description

county (inc GLAs)

E

Polygon

county_electoral_division

E

Polygon

district_borough_unitary

E, S, W

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_ward

E, S

Polygon

english_region

E

Polygon

greater_london_const

E

Polygon

high_water

E, S, W

Polyline

parish

E, S, W

Polygon

unitary_electoral_division

E, W

Polygon

westminster_const

E, S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_const

S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_region

S, W

Polygon

polling_districts_england

E

Polygon

Boundary_line_historic_counties

E, S, W

Polygon

Boundary_line_ceremonial_counties

E, S, W

Polygon

community_ward

W

Polygon

historic_european_region

E, S, W

Polygon

country_region

E, S, W

Polygon

Area - Polling districts England

Area features are polygons with attributes added.

The following schema applies for all area features in the Polling Districts England folder of the shapefile, MapInfo TAB and GeoPackage data supply.

Feature type attributes

The following sub-sections provide details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.

Object ID

Feature identifier added by the software.

  • Attribute Name: Not provided (GPKG), OBJECTID (TAB), OBJECTID (Shapefile)

  • Multiplicity: [1]

PD ID

Identifier comprising 1 to 10 characters.

  • Attribute Name: PD_ID (GPKG), PD_ID (TAB), PD_ID (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 10

  • Multiplicity: [1]

County

The name of the county_region that the feature is inside (includes Greater London Authority).

  • Attribute Name: County (GPKG), County (TAB), County (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

District borough

The name of the district_borough_unitary_region that the feature is inside.

  • Attribute Name: Distric_Bo (GPKG), Distric_Bo (TAB), Distric_Bo (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Ward

The name of the district_borough_unitary_ward_region that the feature is inside.

  • Attribute Name: Ward (GPKG), Ward (TAB), Ward (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: char

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [1]

Parish

The name of the parish_region where Area_Description='Civil Parish Or Community' that the feature is inside.

  • Attribute Name: Parish (GPKG), Parish (TAB), Parish (Shapefile)

  • Data Type: CharacterString

  • Size: 100

  • Multiplicity: [0..1]

TAB

The TAB format (MapInfo tables) is the native format of MapInfo. This format can be read into most GIS packages. The TAB format consists of two files for tabular information, similar to a spreadsheet, and two files for geographic display. All four files are needed to display the geometry and attributes of geographically reference features. The four specific file extensions needed to display the geometry are as follows:

.dat: The dBASE file that stores the attribute information of features.

.id: The file that stores the index of the feature geometry to the attribute table.

.map: The file that stores the geographic information to display each feature.

.tab: The file that links the above three files and holds information about the dataset.

List of layers

Layer
Country
Description

county (inc GLAs)

E

Polygon

county_electoral_division

E

Polygon

district_borough_unitary

E, S, W

Polygon

district_borough_unitary_ward

E, S

Polygon

english_region

E

Polygon

greater_london_const

E

Polygon

high_water

E, S, W

Polyline

parish

E, S, W

Polygon

unitary_electoral_division

E, W

Polygon

westminster_const

E, S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales_const

S, W

Polygon

scotland_and_wales

S, W

Polygon

polling_districts_england_region

E

Polygon

Boundary_line_historic_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

Boundary_line_ceremonial_counties_region

E, S, W

Polygon

community_ward

W

Polygon

historic_european_region

E, S, W

Polygon

country_region

E, S, W

Polygon