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This technical specification provides detailed technical information about Boundary-Line. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.
Boundary-Line provides a representation of the hierarchy of administrative and electoral boundaries and their names for England, Scotland and Wales. Boundary-Line for England and Wales was initially digitised from Ordnance Survey’s boundary record sheets at 1:10 000 scale (or, in some cases, at larger scales).
The Government Statistical Service (GSS) codes are supplied by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and General Register Office for Scotland (GROS).
Appropriate software is needed to use the data for your intended application.
This technical specification includes the following sections:
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).
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.
Boundaries are no longer shown in Boundary-Line if they have been superseded at the time of the annual snapshot of boundaries that each release of Boundary-Line represents.
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.
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.
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 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.
Boundary-Line is a structured link and polygon dataset. The data comprises three levels of features:
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.
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.
The links have a geometry that defines their shape.
Administrative units, polygons and links are assigned unique identifiers for each release of Boundary-Line.
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 are polygons with attributes added.
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.
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.
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.
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:
The name of the attribute and what it is describing.
A condition associated with the attribute (Optional).
The nature of the attribute, for example, a numeric value or a code list value.
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 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.
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: fid (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Feature geometry.
Attribute Name: Not provided (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)
Data Type: Polygon
Multiplicity: [1]
Name of the administrative area.
Attribute Name: Name (GKPG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [0..1]
A code describing the level.
Attribute Name: Area_Code (GKPG), Area_Code (TAB), AREA_CODE (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [1]
Full name of the Area_Code.
Attribute Name: Area_Description (GKPG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 50
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Collection_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
A globally unique sequential integer-maintained identifier.
Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GKPG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), POLYGON_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
A globally unique sequential integer-maintained feature identifier. There are two cases where multiple records have the same UNIT_ID:
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.
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 (GKPG), Admin_Unit_ID (TAB), UNIT_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.
Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GKPG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 9
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.
Attribute Name: Hectares (GKPG), Hectares (TAB), HECTARES (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 9
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Non_Inland_Area (TAB), AREA (Shapefile)
Data Type: Decimal (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 12 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Code depicting whether the boundary is part of a Civil Administration Area, a Civil Voting Area.
Attribute Name: Area_Type_Code (GKPG), Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_CODE (Shapefile)
Size: 2
Multiplicity: [1]
Full description of TYPE_CODE.
Attribute Name: Area_Type_Description (GKPG), Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 25
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Shouldn’t be populated.
Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Code (GKPG), Non_Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_COD0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Shouldn’t be populated.
Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Description (GKPG), Non_Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT1 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 36
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Code List Name:
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.
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: fid (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the community ward.
Attribute Name: Name (GKPG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [0..1]
The classification of the community ward.
Attribute Name: Area_Description (GKPG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPTIO (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the parish_region that the ward is inside.
Attribute Name: Community (GKPG), Community (TAB), COMMUNITY (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of district_borough_unitary_region that the community ward is inside; written in UPPERCASE with underscores.
Attribute Name: File_Name (GKPG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
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.
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: fid (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Feature geometry.
Attribute Name: Not provided (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)
Data Type: Polygon
Multiplicity: [1]
Name of the administrative area.
Attribute Name: Name (GKPG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [0..1]
A code describing the level.
Attribute Name: Area_Code (GKPG), Area_Code (TAB), AREA_CODE (Shapefile)
Code List Name: AreaCode
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [1]
Full name of the Area_Code.
Attribute Name: Area_Description (GKPG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPTIO (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 50
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Collection_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
A globally unique sequential integer-maintained identifier.
Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GKPG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), POLYGON_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
A globally unique sequential integer-maintained feature identifier. There are two cases where multiple records have the same UNIT_ID:
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.
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 (GKPG), Admin_Unit_ID (TAB), UNIT_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 11 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.
Attribute Name: Global_Polygon_ID (GKPG), Global_Polygon_ID (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 9
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Set to the Census / GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.
Attribute Name: Hectares (GKPG), Hectares (TAB), HECTARES (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 9
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Non_Inland_Area (TAB), AREA (Shapefile)
Data Type: Decimal (TAB), Double (Shapefile)
Size: 12 (TAB), n/a (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Code depicting whether the boundary is part of a Civil Administration Area, a Civil Voting Area.
Attribute Name: Area_Type_Code (GKPG), Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_CODE (Shapefile)
Code List Name: TypeCode
Size: 2
Multiplicity: [1]
Full description of TYPE_CODE.
Attribute Name: Area_Type_Description (GKPG), Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 25
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Shouldn’t be populated.
Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Code (GKPG), Non_Area_Type_Code (TAB), TYPE_COD0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 3
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Shouldn’t be populated.
Attribute Name: Non_Area_Type_Description (GKPG), Non_Area_Type_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT1 (Shapefile)
Data Type: Char
Size: 36
Multiplicity: [0..1]
The following subsections describe the content of the Shapefile, TAB and GKPG supply.
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.
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: Not provided (GKPG), OBJECTID (TAB), OBJECTID (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Identifier comprising 1 to 10 characters.
Attribute Name: PD_ID (GKPG), PD_ID (TAB), PD_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 10
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the county_region that the feature is inside (includes Greater London Authority).
Attribute Name: County (GKPG), County (TAB), County (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the district_borough_unitary_region that the feature is inside.
Attribute Name: Distric_Bo (GKPG), Distric_Bo (TAB), Distric_Bo (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the district_borough_unitary_ward_region that the feature is inside.
Attribute Name: Ward (GKPG), Ward (TAB), Ward (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
The name of the parish_region where Area_Description='Civil Parish Or Community' that the feature is inside.
Attribute Name: Parish (GKPG), Parish (TAB), Parish (Shapefile)
Data Type: CharacterString
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [0..1]
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
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: fid (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
Name of the Ceremonial County, Historic County or Historic European Region.
Attribute Name: Name (GKPG), Name (TAB), NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
Classification set to Ceremonial County or Historic County or Historic European Region.
Attribute Name: Area_Description (GKPG), Area_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 50
Multiplicity: [1]
Boundary polygon.
Attribute Name: Not provided (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), LINK_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: GM_Surface
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.
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.
Feature identifier added by the software.
Attribute Name: fid (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), Not provided (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [0..1]
Feature geometry.
Attribute Name: Not provided (GKPG), Not provided (TAB), SHAPE (Shapefile)
Data Type: Polyline
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Feature_Code (TAB), CODE (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 4
Multiplicity: [1]
Description of the boundary feature. Set to ‘High Water Mark’ (HWM)
Attribute Name: Feature_Description (GKPG), Feature_Description (TAB), DESCRIPT0 (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 21
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), File_Name (TAB), FILE_NAME (Shapefile)
Data Type: char
Size: 100
Multiplicity: [1]
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 (GKPG), Feature_Serial_Number (TAB), NUMBER (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Number (Shapefile)
Size: n/a (TAB), 11 (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
A maintained sequential integer identifier that is unique, except for records with duplicate geometry referencing multiple boundary polygons.
Attribute Name: Global_Link_ID (GKPG), Global_Link_ID (TAB), LINK_ID (Shapefile)
Data Type: Integer (TAB), Number (Shapefile)
Size: n/a (TAB), 11 (Shapefile)
Multiplicity: [1]
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.
| Layer | Country | Description |
|---|
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.
| 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 |
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 |
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.
| Value | Description |
|---|
Boundary-Line layers are supplied in Geography Markup Language (GML) v.3.2.1.
GML is based on XML (eXtensible Mark-up Language) and an understanding of the will be helpful in understanding the GML format.
See the following Geography Markup Language v3.2.1 (PDF download) document by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) for full details about GML.
Boundary-Line GML files are only created for the following layers:
County
District_borough_unitary
Parish
XML schemas are used to define and validate the format and content of the GML. The GML v.3.2.1 specification provides a set of schemas that define the GML feature constructs and geometric types. These are designed to be used as a basis for building application-specific schemas, which define the data content.
The AdministrativeUnits.xsd application schema which is referenced by the data, is available on the . It imports the GML 3.2 schemas which rely on .
Style sheets have been created and provided for Boundary-Line GML. You can find these in the Ordnance Survey GitHub repository at .
| Value | Description |
|---|
Each feature with the AdministrativeUnit:FeatureCollection is encapsulated in the following member element according to its feature type:
| Member Element | Feature Type |
|---|
The Admin_Unit_ID of the feature is provided in the XML attribute of the gml:id:
AA | Civil Administration Area |
SR | Statistical Reporting Area |
VA | Civil Voting Area |
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 |
|
|
GeoPackage (GKPG) 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.
| 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
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.
Unit of administration where a Member State has and/or exercises jurisdictional rights for local, regional and national governance.
The following page provides details about the attributes included with this feature type, their data types in the different output formats, and other important metadata about them.
Admin_Unit_ID from Boundary-Line, which is preceded by osgb7 and enough zeros to make it 16 digits, for example, Admin_Unit_ID=25483 becomes osgb7000000000025483.
Attribute Name: gml:id
Data Type: CharacterString
Size: 16
Multiplicity: [1]
Use identifier from Boundary-Line linked data. For example, http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/id/7000000000025483. The number is the Admin_Unit_ID from Boundary-Line, which is preceded by the number 7 and enough zeros to make it 16 digits, for example, Admin_Unit_ID=25483 becomes 7000000000025483.
Attribute Name: gml:identifier
Data Type: CharacterString
Size: 16
Multiplicity: [1]
Geometric representation of spatial area covered by this administrative unit. Can be a multi- polygon.
Attribute Name: geometry
Data Type: GM_Surface
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to the Census/GSS Code for the boundary, for example, E10000014.
Attribute Name: nationalCode
Data Type: CharacterString
Size: 8
Multiplicity: [1]
Admin_Unit_ID from Boundary-Line, which is preceded by the number 7 and enough zeros to make it 16 digits, for example, Admin_Unit_ID=25483 becomes 7000000000025483.
Attribute Name: inspireId.Identifier.localId
Data Type: CharacterString
Size: 16
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'http://data.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/id/'.
Attribute Name: inspireId.Identifier.namespace
Data Type: IdentifierNamespaceValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to publication timestamp, for example, '2016-09-20T16:18:19.000'.
Attribute Name: inspireId.Identifier.versionId
Data Type: DateTime
Multiplicity: [1]
Level in the national administrative hierarchy at which the administrative unit is established. Note that the UK boundary (nationalLevel = 1stOrder) or the boundaries of England/Wales/Scotland (nationalLevel = 2ndOrder) are not included.
Attribute Name: nationalLevel
Code List Name: AdministrativeHierarchyValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Name of the level in the national administrative hierarchy at which the administrative unit is established.
Attribute Name: nationalLevelName
Code List Name: NationalClassificationValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'UK'.
Attribute Name: country
Data Type: CountryValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'true'.
Attribute Name: name.language.xsi:nil
Data Type: BooleanTrueValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'unknown'.
Attribute Name: name.language.nilReason
Data Type: UnknownReasonValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'endonym'.
Attribute Name: name.nativeness.xlink:title
Data Type: NativenessValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/NativenessValue#endonym'.
Attribute Name: name.nativeness.xlink:href
Data Type: NativenessNamespaceValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'official'.
Attribute Name: name.nameStatus.xlink:title
Data Type: NameStatusValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'http://inspire.ec.europa.eu/codelist/NameStatusValue#official'.
Attribute Name: name.nameStatus.xlink:href
Data Type: NameStatusNamespaceValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'Boundary-Line'.
Attribute Name: name.sourceOfName
Data Type: SourceOfNameValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'true'.
Attribute Name: name.pronunciation.xsi:nil
Data Type: BooleanTrueValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'missing'.
Attribute Name: name.pronunciation.nilReason
Data Type: MissingReasonValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Official national geographical name of the administrative unit.
Attribute Name: name.spelling.text
Data Type: CharacterString
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'Latn'.
Attribute Name: name.spelling.script
Data Type: ScriptValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'true'.
Attribute Name: residenceOfAuthority.xsi:nil
Data Type: BooleanTrueValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'unknown'.
Attribute Name: residenceOfAuthority.nilReason
Data Type: UnknownReasonValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to publication timestamp, for example, 2016-09-20T16:18:19.000.
Attribute Name: beginLifespanVersion
Data Type:
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'true'.
Attribute Name: boundary.xsi:nil
Data Type: BooleanTrueValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Set to 'unknown'.
Attribute Name: boundary.nilReason
Data Type: UnknownReasonValue
Multiplicity: [1]
Boundary-Line is supplied as a national vector tiles set in a single MBTiles file (combined from individual PBF tiles). This is a lightweight set of tiles that are efficient to render in supported software, provide high-resolution data and give a seamless experience when zooming in and out. The data is supplied in Web Mercator projection (ESPG:3857).
The vector tiles schema is detailed in the following page.
All layers and their attributes are mapped within zoom levels 9 to 14, but not within zoom levels 0 to 8
Layer Name: Boundary_line_ceremonial_counties
Attribute Name:
name
Layer Name: Boundary_line_historic_counties
Attribute Name:
name
Layer Name: community_ward
Attribute Names:
name
community
Layer Name: county
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: county_electoral_division
Attribute Name:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: country_region
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: district_borough_unitary
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: district_borough_unitary_ward
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: english_region
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: greater_london_const
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: high_water
Attribute Names:
file_name
global_link_id
Layer Name: historic_european_region
Attribute Name:
name
Layer Name: parish
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: polling_districts_england
Attribute Names:
pd_id
county
district_borough
ward
parish
Layer Name: scotland_and_wales_const
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: scotland_and_wales_region
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: unitary_electoral_division
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Layer Name: westminster_const
Attribute Names:
name
area_code
global_polygon_id
census_code
hectares
non_inland_area
area_type_code
Levels of administration in the national administrative hierarchy. This code list reflects the level in the hierarchical pyramid of the administrative structures, which is based on geometric aggregation of territories and does not necessarily describe the subordination between the related administrative authorities.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
Names of the levels in the national administrative hierarchy of administrative units.
| Value | Description |
|---|---|
3rdOrder
Applies to Non-Metropolitan County, Greater London Authority, Metropolitan District and Unitary Authority.
4thOrder
Applies to District and London Borough.
5thOrder
Applies to Civil Parish and Community.
Civil Parish
Parishes are subdivisions of local authorities in many parts of England, and their councils are the most local level of government. Unlike electoral wards/divisions however, parishes are not found in all parts of England. The Welsh equivalents are communities. Note that the full term for administrative parishes is 'civil parishes', to distinguish them from the ecclesiastical parishes which are found in all parts of the UK.
District
Districts are local administrative units and have at various times been used in all four countries of the UK. The only current references to districts however are found in metropolitan and non-metropolitan districts in England and district council areas in Northern Ireland.
Greater London Authority
The area covered by the Greater London Authority (GLA). The GLA is the body responsible for strategic citywide government for London and consists of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly. The remit of the GLA covers the Greater London area.
London Borough
The London boroughs are the local government areas within Greater London. The borough councils are unitary administrations with a status similar to metropolitan districts, but they will also be affected by any policies implemented by the Greater London Authority (GLA).
Metropolitan District
Metropolitan districts are subdivisions of the six metropolitan county areas of England. Since the abolition of the metropolitan county councils in 1986, the metropolitan district councils have been unitary administrations.
Unitary Authority
Unitary authorities (UAs) are areas with a single tier of local government (as opposed to the two-tier county:district structure).
Non-Metropolitan County
Counties were formerly administrative units across the whole UK. Due to various administrative restructurings however, the only administrative areas still referred to as counties are the non- metropolitan (shire) counties of England. The English metropolitan counties, although no longer administrative units, are also used for statistical purposes.
Community
The Welsh equivalent of Civil Parish.