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Planning application data standard

POC This is a proof of concept viewer for the planning permission specifications - your feedback will help us to improve it.

Data model

The planning application data standard describes what applicants submit, what planning authorities record and what information is made available for others to use.

Select a marker to explore each part and how it connects to the others.

Diagram showing a submission service sending application information to a planning authority. The authority records information through receipt, validation, consultation, refinement and deliberation. Selected information is made available through views, including the defined national public view and possible future appeals and consultee views.

A1What must be submitted

The submission specification defines the information an applicant needs to provide when making an application. A submission service prepares and sends that information to the planning authority.

The submission specification includes rules about which information is needed for each application type and how one answer can make another question relevant. All submission services must conform with the specification.

A2What the authority must hold

The planning application data specification describes the information the authority records and maintains. Submitted information is a starting point. The authority adds and updates records as it handles the application, including documents, events and decisions.

The specification describes the data, rather than requiring a particular back-office product or internal database layout. Some of the information included in the specification will remain private and is not part of the national public view.

A3Information changes through the process

As an application moves through the process, the authority adds information such as consultation events, further documents and the decision notice.

This helps people understand what is happening, how many applications are open and how long they have been in the system.

A4The national public view

The national public view defines which parts of the authority's records are to be made available as open data. It selects datasets, fields and records from the wider planning application data specification.

It is a selected extract, not the whole submission or everything the authority holds. The authority makes this data available, and the planning data platform collects it for national use.

A5Other views could meet other needs

Different users may need different selections of the information the authority holds. The appeals and statutory consultee boxes illustrate possible future views. They have not yet been defined.

Each view needs a clear purpose and an agreed set of data and access rules. Not all information needed for a particular purpose automatically belongs in the open national public view.

Choose a numbered marker to open its annotation. Use Tab and Enter with a keyboard.

A submission provides the starting information. The authority maintains records as the application progresses. Views select information from those records for particular purposes, including publication as open data.

How an application submission is structured

An application type brings together modules. Modules group related fields and can use components to reuse groups of fields. Modules can also contain fields directly. Fields define individual items of information and can link to codelists that set allowed values.

Conditional rules explain when information applies or is required. For example, one answer can make another field relevant.

Example structure: application type → module → component → field. A module can also link directly to a field.

How planning authorities record information

A dataset describes one kind of thing. It contains records for that thing, with fields describing each record and references connecting related records. For example, a planning application can link to a site, and a decision notice can link to its application.

Datasets describe the information authorities maintain. They do not prescribe how an authority must arrange its internal systems.

Explore the datasets

How views select information

A view selects datasets, fields and records for a purpose. The national public view defines the planning data to make available as open data. It is a selected part of the wider information authorities record.

Read about the national public view.

Shared definitions

Fields and codelists are shared building blocks. A field describes an item of information and its datatype. A codelist gives the controlled values that can be used for a field.

Browse the field and codelist indexes.

Why information is included

User needs describe what people need to achieve. Justification records explain how parts of the data model support those needs. Design decisions record why the model uses a particular approach.