Standards Catalogue
Updated 25 October 2023
© Crown copyright 2023
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/data-standards-authority-standards-catalogue/standards-catalogue
Description:
The Data Standards Catalogue currently contains the standards listed below. We also have a list of external standards catalogues.
| Name | Tags | Status | Date updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| 360Giving Schema | Domain Specific Payments Clearing and Settlement | Endorsed | 2021-02-02 |
| Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard A standardised way of recording and sharing information about how the public sector uses algorithmic tools. | Algorithms, Transparency | Endorsed | - |
|
Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) v0.3 Defines a common data format that provides a consistent way to collect, use, exchange and publish beneficial ownership information. |
Service Referrals Service, Product, Application, System or Platform Design | Endorsed | 2022-03-16 |
| Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files | Tabular Data Data, Information and Records Management Lifecycle Open Documents | Endorsed | 2021-02-02 |
| Digital Object identifier System DOI introduces persistent identifiers for research and information assets | Identification | Endorsed | - |
| ODF 1.2 | Data, Information and Records Management Lifecycle Open Documents | Endorsed | 2021-02-02 |
| OpenReferralUK Making it easy to publish, find and use community services data | Service Referrals Service, Product, Application, System or Platform Design | Endorsed | 2021-03-16 |
| Security.txt provides with a simple way to report a vulnerability | Vulnerability, Reporting, Security | Endorsed | - |
| UK Gemini is the UK geographic metadata standard | Semantics Metadata | In review | 2020-12-01 |
| Unique Property Reference Number | Identification Geospatial Common Reference Data | Endorsed | 2020-12-16 |
| Universal financial industry message scheme | Domain Specific Payments Clearing and Settlement | In review | 2021-02-02 |
360Giving Schema
Name
Tags
- Domain Specific
- Payments Clearing and Settlement
Maintained By
Licence
Open standard - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Status
In review
Guidance:
Resources for the 360Giving data standard: - view the 360Giving schema to help you structure and lay out grant data - use the 360Giving data standard to disclose and publish grant data from government organisations - produce 360Giving data in a spreadsheet format
Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard
Tags
- Algorithms
- Transparency
Maintained by
License
Open standard - Open Government Licence v3.0
Status
Endorsed
The Algorithmic Transparency Recording Standard helps public sector organisations provide clear information about the algorithmic tools they use, and why they’re using them. Algorithmic transparency means being open about how algorithmic tools support decisions. This includes providing information on algorithmic tools and algorithm-assisted decisions in a complete, open, understandable, easily-accessible, and free format.
Algorithmic transparency reporting standard hub:
CDEI report on algorithmic transparency in the public sector:
Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) v0.3
Name
Beneficial Ownership Data Standard (BODS) v0.3
Tags
- Service Referrals
- Service, Product, Application, System or Platform Design
Maintained By
Licence
Open standard - Apache License 2.0
Status
Endorsed
Use the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard v0.2 to collect, use, exchange and publish beneficial ownership information.
Read GOV.UK guidance about this standard to help you:
- learn how to use it for government work
- find out how it meets user needs
- access links to data schemas, technical guidance and example data
- publish BODS data properly and following government policy
The UK government has committed to publishing beneficial ownership data in a structured, machine-readable format which meets the Beneficial Ownership Data Standard. If you’re publishing beneficial ownership data to GOV.UK, you must follow guidance on publishing and managing data.
Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files
Name
Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files
Also Known As
RFC4180
Tags
- Tabular Data
- Data, Information and Records Management Lifecycle
- Open Documents
Maintained By
Licence
Unknown
Status
Endorsed
You can use this standard for publishing data, where your data has a variety of uses and is for many users. This standard does not cover non-tabular models of data. For example:
- multiple tables with relations, such as SQL
- hierarchical/flexible records, such as XML or JSON
- geographic, such as GeoJSON
- graph/triples, such as RDF This standard does not cover extra information about the tabular data, such as the column types, or table contents validation. You should keep this type of information separate from a CSV file to avoid it conflicting with the data structure as described in RFC 4180..
Guidance:
How To:
Digital Object identifier System
Tags
- Identification
Maintained by
Licence
Open standard - The creative commons public domain dedication
Status
Endorsed
The DOI system enables persistent identifiers with permanent web addresses to be assigned to key information assets published by government, using an external registration agency. DOIs help to make key resources, such as data, insights, bulletins and policy documents findable, citable and better connected.
Government Guidance on persistent resolvable identifiers:
Government service manual:
ODF 1.2
Name
Tags
- Data, Information and Records Management Lifecycle
- Open Documents
Maintained By
Licence
Unknown
Status
Endorsed
The ODF standard works on most operating systems for desktops, laptops, mobile phones and tablets. ODF 1.2 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.
Guidance:
How To:
OpenReferralUK
Name
Tags
- Service Referrals
- Service, Product, Application, System or Platform Design
Maintained By
Licence
Open standard - Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International
Status
Endorsed
The standard provides for recording sufficient data to be able to identify a small target set of services that closely meet the needs of a prospective service user, as given by the user’s location and circumstances. The OpenReferral schema defines a structure for human services data - that is, a directory of services that meet human needs. Open Referral UK extends Open Referral to support richer data where needed. It then constrains the resultant schema by means of an application profile which says what fields are recommended for English use and what external vocabularies to reference.
Use Cases:
Case Studies:
- https://openreferraluk.org/community/case-studies
- https://blog.wearefuturegov.com/how-to-build-a-service-directory-with-data-standards-70f926f2ed00
Guidance:
How To:
Security.txt
Tags
- Vulnerability
- Reporting
- Security
Maintained by
Internet Engineering Task Force
Licence
Open standard - Internet Engineering Task Force Trust
Status
Endorsed
The security.txt data standard was developed to make it easier to publish important information regarding how to report a vulnerability. One of the most important elements of vulnerability disclosure, and a challenge for the finder, is understanding who to contact. Security.txt is an IETF Internet informational specification (RFC 9116) and it describes a text file that webmasters can host in the “/.well-known” directory of the domain root. This file advertises the department’s vulnerability disclosure process so that someone can quickly find all of the information needed to report a vulnerability.
Guidance:
- A piece of guidance will be published to help people use the security.txt standard. New data standards require guidance in ‘profile’ form to give users information about how it works, and how to find resources about it. A piece of guidance in the form of a basic ‘profile’ to help people use the security/txt standard will be added.
UK Gemini
Name
Also Known As
GEMINI
Tags
- Semantics
- Metadata
Maintained By
Association for Geographic Information
Licence
Open standard - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Status
In review
“GEMINI” is the UK geographic metadata standard. It provides guidance on how to publish geographic metadata in a way that conforms to relevant ISO standards and the UK’s implementation of the European INSPIRE regulations. UK GEMINI (GEo-spatial Metadata INteroperability Initiative) is a specification for a set of metadata elements for describing geospatial data resources. It has been produced and is maintained by the Standards Committee.
Use Case:
Case Studies:
- https://www.agi.org.uk/about/resources/category/81-gemini?download=436:medin-a-case-study-on-how-gemini-has-been-implemented-for-marine-data
- https://www.agi.org.uk/about/resources/category/81-gemini?download=440:agi-gemini-2-3-case-study-astun-technology
Guidance:
How To:
Unique Property Reference Number
Name
Unique Property Reference Number
Also Known As
UPRN
Tags
- Identification
- Geospatial
- Common Reference Data
Maintained By
Licence
Open standard - Open Government Licence v3.0
Status
Endorsed
UPRN stands for Unique Property Reference Number and was created by the Ordnance Survey (OS). It consists of numbers of up to 12 digits in length. Local governments in the UK have allocated a unique number for each land or property.
Use Cases:
- https://www.geoplace.co.uk/addresses-streets/addresses/the-uprn
- https://www.geoplace.co.uk/downloads/Linking-People-to-Places-with-Unique-Identifiers.pdf
Case Studies:
- https://blog.geo.place/2020/03/26/what-can-food-hygiene-tell-us-about-fire-safety/
- https://www.ukauthority.com/articles/connecting-fire-and-flood-risk-with-place-through-uprns/
- https://www.geoplace.co.uk/addresses-streets/addresses/addressing-in-the-uk
- https://www.geoplace.co.uk/downloads/Address-and-street-data-a-common-standard-for-digital-transformation.pdf
- https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/business-government/products/addressbase-premium
Guidance:
How To:
- https://uprn.uk/
- https://s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/static.geoplace.co.uk/downloads/British-Standard-7666-2006.pdf?version=1.1
Universal financial industry message scheme
Name
Universal financial industry message scheme
Also Known As
ISO20022
Tags
- Domain Specific
- Payments Clearing and Settlement
Maintained By
Licence
Proprietary
Status
In review
ISO 20022 is a multi part International Standard prepared by ISO Technical Committee TC68 Financial Services. It describes a common platform for the development of messages using: - a modelling methodology to capture in a syntax-independent way financial business areas, business transactions and associated message flows - a central dictionary of business items used in financial communications - a set of XML and ASN.1 design rules to convert the message models into XML or ASN.1 schemas, whenever the use of the ISO 20022 XML or ASN.1-based syntax is preferred.