Specification

Design code

9 June 2022

Abstract

This specification defines the contents and format of data which a relevant planning authority or other party may use to provide information about one or more design codes.

Status of this specification

Warning This is working copy of a specification under development. It is inappropriate to cite this draft document as anything other than a work in progress.

This is a draft specification, following the standards for planning data process [design-process]. The contents of this specification are currently under development, and liable to change based on feedback.

This document places no obligations on any party to provide data in conformance to this specification.

A future version of this specification may be formally published on GOV.UK, and cited as one of a number of official data standards for the provision of planning data under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023 [LURA] or other legislation.

This technical specification is accompanied by guidance, examples and other tools which provide feedback to organisations creating data to this specification.

Comments and feedback on this specification may be provided on the GitHub discussion or sent to digitalland@communities.gov.uk.

Conformance

As well as sections marked as non-normative, all authoring guidelines, diagrams, examples, and notes in this specification are non-normative. Everything else in this specification is normative.

The key words MAY, MUST, NOT, and SHOULD in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119] when, and only when, they appear in all capitals [RFC8174] as shown here.

Datasets and fields

This section is non-normative

An index of the datasets and fields defined by this specification.

Design code
Field	Requirement	Datatype
reference		reference
name		string
description		string
design-code-status		string
documentation-url		URL
document-url		URL
notes		text
start-date		datetime
end-date		datetime
entry-date		datetime

Design code rule
Field	Requirement	Datatype
reference		reference
name		string
design-code		string
description		string
document-url		URL
documentation-url		URL
design-code-rule-categories		string
notes		text
entry-date		datetime
start-date		datetime
end-date		datetime

Design code area
Field	Requirement	Datatype
reference		reference
name		string
geometry		geometry
design-code		string
design-code-rules		string
design-code-area-type		string
documentation-url		URL
notes		text
entry-date		datetime
start-date		datetime
end-date		datetime

Dataset relationships

This section is non-normative

The following diagram illustrates the datasets specified by this document, and how data in a dataset entry may reference, or be referenced by an entry in another dataset.

Dataset details

Design code

The Design code dataset contains .

The Design code dataset contain at least one entry for each Design code for which the data provider is the responsible authority.

Reference

Each Design code entry MAY contain a reference field value.

The Design code reference field MUST be a reference value.

The <a href="#reference">reference</a> for the design code.

Name

Each Design code entry MAY contain a name field value.

The Design code name field MUST be a string value.

The name, or title of the design code.

Description

Each Design code entry MAY contain a description field value.

The Design code description field MUST be a string value.

A short, single-line description of the design code.

Design code status

Each Design code entry MAY contain a design-code-status field value.

The Design code design-code-status field MUST be a string value.

Each Design code entry MAY contain a reference value from the design-code-status dataset.

A <a href="#design-code-status">design-code-status</a> reference.

Documentation URL

Each Design code entry MAY contain a documentation-url field value.

The Design code documentation-url field MUST be a URL value.

The URL for the Web page with guidance on the design code policy document.

Document URL

A url to a document.

Each Design code entry MAY contain a document-url field value.

The Design code document-url field MUST be a URL value.

The URL for the Design Code. This should be a URL to a website or document.

Notes

Notes and commentary about how this data was made or may be interpreted.

Each Design code entry MAY contain a notes field value.

The Design code notes field MUST be a text value.

Optional notes on the status of the design code.

Start date

Date the entity became active or in force.

Each Design code entry MAY contain a start-date field value.

The Design code start-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The <a href="#date">date</a> the design code comes, or came into force.

End date

Date from which the entity is not longer active or in force.

Each Design code entry MAY contain an end-date field value.

The Design code end-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The <a href="#date">date</a> this date the design code no longer applies.

Entry date

Entry date of the data.

Each Design code entry MAY contain an entry-date field value.

The Design code entry-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The <a href="#date">date</a> this entry was created or last amended.

Design code rule

The Design code rule dataset contains the set of design code rules affecting a design code area.

The Design code rule dataset contain at least one entry for each Design code rule for which the data provider is the responsible authority.

Reference

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a reference field value.

The Design code rule reference field MUST be a reference value.

The <a href="#reference">reference</a> for the design code rule.

Name

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a name field value.

The Design code rule name field MUST be a string value.

The name, or title of the design code rule.

Design code

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a design-code field value.

The Design code rule design-code field MUST be a string value.

The <a href="#reference">reference</a> for the design code where this rule is defined..

Description

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a description field value.

The Design code rule description field MUST be a string value.

A short, single-line description of the design code rule.

Document URL

A url to a document.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a document-url field value.

The Design code rule document-url field MUST be a URL value.

The URL for the design code rule. This should be a URL to a website or document.

Documentation URL

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a documentation-url field value.

The Design code rule documentation-url field MUST be a URL value.

The URL for a page where we can find a link to the design code rule, this is usually a contents or summary page.

Design code rule categories

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a design-code-rule-categories field value.

The Design code rule design-code-rule-categories field MUST be a string value.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a reference value from the design-code-rule-category dataset.

A list of one or more <a href="#design-code-category">design-code-rule-categories</a> references, separated by a semi-colon ';' character.

Notes

Notes and commentary about how this data was made or may be interpreted.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a notes field value.

The Design code rule notes field MUST be a text value.

A field to capture notes about the design code rule.

Entry date

Entry date of the data.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain an entry-date field value.

The Design code rule entry-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date this information has been entered as a record.

Start date

Date the entity became active or in force.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain a start-date field value.

The Design code rule start-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date the validity of the record starts.

End date

Date from which the entity is not longer active or in force.

Each Design code rule entry MAY contain an end-date field value.

The Design code rule end-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date the validity of the record ends.

Design code area

The Design code area dataset contains .

The Design code area dataset contain at least one entry for each Design code area for which the data provider is the responsible authority.

Reference

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a reference field value.

The Design code area reference field MUST be a reference value.

The <a href="#reference">reference</a> for the design code area.

Name

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a name field value.

The Design code area name field MUST be a string value.

The name, or title of the design code area.

Geometry

A polygon or multipolygon boundary.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a geometry field value.

The Design code area geometry field MUST be a geometry value.

The boundaries of the design code area as a POLYGON or MULTIPOLYGON, with points in the EPSG 4326 coordinate reference system, and WGS85 datum, encoded in Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of geometry..

Design code

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a design-code field value.

The Design code area design-code field MUST be a string value.

The <a href="#reference">reference</a> for the design code which applies to this area.

Design code rules

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a design-code-rules field value.

The Design code area design-code-rules field MUST be a string value.

A list of one or more <a href="#reference">reference</a> values for <a href="design-code-rule-dataset">design code rule</a> entries, separated by a semi-colon ';' character..

Design code area type

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a design-code-area-type field value.

The Design code area design-code-area-type field MUST be a string value.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a reference value from the design-code-area-type dataset.

The classification of the area, for example Rural Settlements or Urban Neighbourhood.

Documentation URL

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a documentation-url field value.

The Design code area documentation-url field MUST be a URL value.

The URL for guidance or information defining the design code area.

Notes

Notes and commentary about how this data was made or may be interpreted.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a notes field value.

The Design code area notes field MUST be a text value.

A field to capture notes about the design code area.

Entry date

Entry date of the data.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain an entry-date field value.

The Design code area entry-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date this information has been entered as a record.

Start date

Date the entity became active or in force.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain a start-date field value.

The Design code area start-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date the validity of the record starts.

End date

Date from which the entity is not longer active or in force.

Each Design code area entry MAY contain an end-date field value.

The Design code area end-date field MUST be a datetime value.

The date the validity of the record ends.

Source documentation

The source documentation is a web page where the user should go to confirm the validity of information provided in the data.

The source documentation SHOULD be a web page accessible as [HTML] from a public URL.

Finding the information on the organisation's official website helps users check the information in the data. It increases the trust the user may place in the origin of the data, and that it is more likely to be sustained.

The source documentation SHOULD be on the offical website for the organisation.

A Local Authority or other public body should put the documentation page under their .gov.uk domain.

The source documentation MAY either contain the endpoint documentation, or link to one or more separate endpoint documentation pages.

Endpoint documentation

The endpoint documentation is a web page where a user can find a link to where they can download the data (the endpoint), along with other information relevant to a data user, such as the date the data was last updated. Every endpoint needs to be findable via a link on the source documentation page, and the endpoint documentation can be on the source page, on a separate documentation point for each endpoint, or a combination thereof.

The documentation for an endpoint SHOULD be accessible as [HTML] from a public URL.

The endpoint documentation URL SHOULD have the same URL as the endpoint documentation page.

The endpoint documentation URL MAY have the same URL as the source documentation page.

The endpoint documentation include a hyperlink to one or more endpoints for design code data.

The endpoint documentation include a hyperlink to one or more endpoints for design code rule data.

The endpoint documentation include a hyperlink to one or more endpoints for design code area data.

The endpoint documentation page SHOULD include a clear licence for reusing the data.

The data SHOULD be published as [crown-copyright] under [OGL3].

The endpoint documentation page SHOULD include any further attribution a user of the data needs to provide if they copy, publish, distribute or otherwise retransmit the data.

Datatypes

Reference

The reference MAY be used to refer to the entity by other data.

A reference value MUST be either a [CURIE] or the reference part of a [CURIE] identifier.

A reference SHOULD be persistent. A reference SHOULD be used by the data provider to identify the same entity in the future.

A reference SHOULD NOT be used to refer to a different entity in the future.

Where a reference has been used to refer to two different entities, add a year or other text to disambiguate the references, for example use 'CA01' and 'CA01/2022' rather than just 'CA01' for two different conservation areas.

A reference SHOULD be short and meaningful to a user.

Datetime

Dates MUST conform to [ISO8601] following the [Open Standards for government guidance [formatting-dates-and-times-in-data].

A date value SHOULD be blank if it is unknown.

The date MAY just contain the year 'YYYY' if only the year is known, or 'YYYY-MM' if only the year and month is known.

Geometry

A geometry field MAY be eiher a single POLYGON or MULTIPOLYGON value.

When using Comma Separated Value (CSV), the geometry SHOULD be encoded as Well Known Text [WKT].

All points SHOULD be either in the [WGS84] (EPSG::4326) or [ETRS89] (EPSG::4258) coordinate reference system following the [Open Standards for government] guidance [exchange-of-location-point].

Boundaries provided by this dataset are intended to be used as an index. Positions calculated by the WGS84 and ETRS89 systems can currently deviate by half a metre for points within England. Survey data should be used where more precision is needed.

Coordinate values SHOULD be 6 or fewer decimal places.

Integer

A value in the integer values MUST conform to the integer datatype as defined by [tabular-metadata].

Text

All text values SHOULD be compatible with [govspeak-markdown].

All text values MUST be encoded in UTF-8 [RFC3629] following the [Open Standards for government] guidance [encoding-characters].

URL

All URL values MUST conform to [RFC3986].

For the purposes of this specification, the terms URL, URI and IRI are synonymous as set out in [URL-interoperability]

String

All string values MUST be encoded in UTF-8 [RFC3629] following the [Open Standards for government] guidance [encoding-characters].

Historical data

Removing historical data can reduce the trust a user places in the quality of the data. There are also many uses for historical documents, data and material information in planning, such as when developing an older property, processing an appeal, and monitoring the delivery of housing on older brownfield land, and when collecting evidence for plan-making.

Entries SHOULD NOT be changed or removed from the data except to correct a mistake, or for the purposes of redacting personal or otherwise sensitive information.

An entity SHOULD be updated by adding another entry to the data with the same reference and a newer entry-date.

Entries SHOULD be ordered within a dataset by the entry-date value, with older entries appearing before later entries.

The end-date field SHOULD be used to indicate when an entity is no longer applicable.

Data file formats

Data MUST be provided in at least one of the following file formats:

Comma Separated Value (CSV) [RFC4180]
GeoJSON [RFC7946]
OGC [GML]
OGC [Geopackage]
OGC Keyhole Markup Language [KML]

The preferred format for geospatial data is GeoJSON.

Tabular data SHOULD be provided as (CSV) [RFC4180] following the [Open Standards for government] guidance [tabular-data-standard].

Field names

The case and punctuation used in field names is insignificant, meaning 'StartDate', 'Start Date' 'START_DATE' and 'start.date', are all valid ways of naming the 'start-date' field.

A field name SHOULD be treated as being case insensitive.

A non-alphanumeric character in a field name SHOULD be ignored.

Evolution

This specification is expected to evolve through compatible evolution:

Data may contain additional fields in the future. Processors must ignore any fields they aren't expecting.
Fields in this specification will be deprecated in a future version, rather than being removed.
Future versions of this specification MUST NOT significantly change the meaning of any of the fields in this version of the specification.

A sending processor conforming to this specification MAY include unspecified fields and values.

A receiving processor conforming to this specification MUST ignore any unspecified fields and their values.

Extensibility

The approach for evolution enables processors to extend the specification by including fields and data for their own purposes.

A processor SHOULD NOT add fields likely to be used in a future version of this specification for different purposes.

Endpoint

The endpoint is the URL for where data in a format defined by this specification may be downloaded. The Other patterns for collecting data are under consideration, including feeds for large datasets which change frequently.

Your data must be on a URL the public can access. We collect the latest data from there every day. We call this the ‘endpoint URL’.

Endpoints typically fall into 1 of the following 2 categories:

a file hosted on your web server — these will usually be URLs which end in something like .json or .csv
an API — these are usually hosted by your GIS (Geographic Information System) software or open data platform

Whenever your data changes, update it in the endpoint URL. Your endpoint URL should remain the same, do not change it when you make updates.

The endpoint MUST serve data conforming to this specification.

The endpoint MUST be accessible via HTTPS.

The data MUST be publicly accessible without authentication or authorisation.

Security and privacy considerations

There is a risk of people's names or other personally identifiable information appearing in the data, in particular notes, description and other text fields. It is the responsibility of the data provider to review and redact such information before publication.

The [OGL3] licence does not cover personal data in the Information.

The data MUST NOT contain any personal or sensitive information, unless explicitly required by this specification, or legislation.

Colophon

References

Normative references

[RFC2119]: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels. IETF Best Current Practice. https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119
[RFC8174]: Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in [RFC2119] Key Words. IETF Best Current Practice. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc8174
[RFC3629]: UTF-8, a transformation format of ISO 10646. IETF Internet Standard. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3629
[RFC4180]: Common Format and MIME Type for Comma-Separated Values (CSV) Files. IETF Informational. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc4180
[RFC7946]: The GeoJSON Format. Proposed Standard. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc7946
[RFC3339]: Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps. IETF Proposed Standard. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3339
[RFC3986]: IETF Standard. Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax. https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986
[URI-Fragment]: Section 3.5 of [RFC3986] Fragment Identifier of a URI https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986#section-3.5
[tabular-metadata]: Metadata Vocabulary for Tabular Data. W3C Recommendation. https://www.w3.org/TR/2015/REC-tabular-metadata-20151217/
[tabular-data-model]: Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web. W3C Recommendation. https://www.w3.org/TR/2015/REC-tabular-data-model-20151217
[CURIE]: CURIE Syntax 1.0 A syntax for expressing Compact URIs. W3C Working Group Note. https://www.w3.org/TR/2010/NOTE-curie-20101216/
[GML]: Geography Markup Language (GML). Open Geospatial Consortium standard (ISO 19136-1:2020). https://www.ogc.org/standards/gml
[KML]: OGC KML 2.3. Open Geospatial Consortium standard (12-007r2). http://www.opengis.net/doc/IS/kml/2.3
[Geopackage]: OGC Geopackage 1,4 Open Geospatial Consortium standard (12-128r19). http://www.opengis.net/doc/IS/geopackage/1.4
[WGS84]: National Imagery and Mapping Agency, "Department of Defense World Geodetic System 1984: Its Definition and Relationships with Local Geodetic Systems", Third Edition, 1984. The code for this standard in the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) Registry is [EPSG::4326]. https://nsgreg.nga.mil/doc/view?i=4085
[ETRS89]: The European Terrestrial Reference System 89 (ETRS89) The code for this standard in the European Petroleum Survey Group (EPSG) Registry is [EPSG::4258]. http://etrs89.ensg.ign.fr/
[WKT]: OGC Well-known text (WKT) as defined by ISO/IEC 13249-3:2016. https://www.iso.org/standard/60343.html
[ISO8601]: Data elements and interchange formats – Information interchange – Representation of dates and times", ISO 8601:1988(E), International Organization for Standardization, June, 1988.
[OGL3]: Open Government Licence for public sector information. Version 3. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/
[crown-copyright]: Crown copyright. Section 163 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 as works made by officers or servants of the Crown in the course of their duties. https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/re-using-public-sector-information/uk-government-licensing-framework/crown-copyright/

Informative references

[LURA]: Levelling-up and Regeneration Act. Originated in the House of Commons, Session 2022-23. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2023/55/enacted
[process]: Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government planning data standards design process (service under development). https://design.planning.data.gov.uk
[GSS]: Office for National Statistics, Geography Coding and Naming Policy for Official Statistics Version 2.0, July 2025 https://geoportal.statistics.gov.uk/documents/5a050dcaac8049dc9dc0aa7de0943378/about
[govspeak-markdown]: How to publish on GOV.UK: Govspeak Markdown. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/how-to-publish-on-gov-uk/markdown
[open-standards-for-government]: Government Digital Service and Central Digital and Data Office. Open standards for government
[encoding-characters]: Encoding characters Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/cross-platform-character-encoding-profile
[persistent-resolvable-identifiers]: Persistent resolvable identifiers. Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/persistent-resolvable-identifiers
[formatting-dates-and-times-in-data]: Formatting dates and times in data. Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/date-times-and-time-stamps-standard
[publishing-government-documents]: Publishing government documents. Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/viewing-government-documents
[exchange-of-location-point]: Exchange of location point. Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-for-government/exchange-of-location-point
[tabular-data-standard]: Tabular data standard. Open Standards for Government. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/recommended-open-standards-for-government/tabular-data-standard
[using-csv]: Using CSV file format. Central Digital and Data Office guidance. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/using-csv-file-format
[csv-on-the-web]: CSV on the Web: A Primer. W3C Working Group Note. https://www.w3.org/TR/tabular-data-primer/
[EPSG::4326]: World Geodetic System 1984 [WGS84] EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset. https://epsg.io/4326
[EPSG::4258]: The European Terrestrial Reference System 89 [ETRS89] EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset. https://epsg.io/4326
[GDAL]: GDAL. Open Source Geospatial Foundation. https://gdal.org/
[TAB]: MapInfo TAB format. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MapInfo_TAB_format
[Shapefile]: ESRI Shapefile format. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapefile
[ZIP]: ZIP format. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_(file_format)
[HTML]: WHATWG HTML. Living Standard. https://html.spec.whatwg.org/
[URL-interoperability]: WHATWG URL. Living Standard. Interoperability of URL with URI and IRI values. https://url.spec.whatwg.org/

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Design code

Abstract

Status of this specification

Conformance

Datasets and fields

Dataset relationships

Dataset details

Design code

Reference

Name

Description

Design code status

Documentation URL

Document URL

Notes

Start date

End date

Entry date

Design code rule

Reference

Name

Design code

Description

Document URL

Documentation URL

Design code rule categories

Notes

Entry date

Start date

End date

Design code area

Reference

Name

Geometry

Design code

Design code rules

Design code area type

Documentation URL

Notes

Entry date

Start date

End date

Source documentation

Endpoint documentation

Datatypes

Reference

Datetime

Geometry

Integer

Text

URL

String

Historical data

Data file formats

Field names

Evolution

Extensibility

Endpoint

Security and privacy considerations

Colophon

References

Normative references

Informative references