Data standards¶
The standards that make Defra data consistent, joinable and reusable. Use these by default - see guardrail GR-DATA-03.
We adopt cross-government standards from the Data Standards Authority wherever they exist, and add Defra-specific standards only where needed.
Cross-government standards¶
| Topic | Standard |
|---|---|
| Dates and times | ISO 8601, stored in UTC |
| Property and street identifiers | UPRN and USRN |
| Organisations | Companies House number, Charity Commission number |
| Countries and territories | ISO 3166 / FCDO country register |
| Tabular data | CSV with UTF-8 encoding |
| Character encoding | UTF-8 |
| APIs | API technical and data standards, OpenAPI 3 |
| Metadata | DCAT for data catalogues |
| Data quality | Government Data Quality Framework |
| Data ethics | Data and AI Ethics Framework |
Geospatial standards¶
Much of Defra's data is about places. Geospatial data should follow these standards so it can be overlaid and analysed together.
| Topic | Standard |
|---|---|
| Coordinate reference system (GB) | British National Grid, EPSG:27700, for storage and analysis |
| Coordinate reference system (web) | WGS 84 (EPSG:4326) or Web Mercator (EPSG:3857) for web display and exchange |
| Geospatial metadata | UK GEMINI |
| Data exchange | OGC API - Features, GeoJSON, GeoPackage; WMS/WMTS for map services |
| Base mapping and addresses | Ordnance Survey data under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement |
Defra identifiers¶
These identifiers are widely used across Defra group. Use them, and validate them, rather than inventing local equivalents.
| Identifier | Identifies | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| CRN - Customer Reference Number | A person registered with the Rural Payments service | |
| SBI - Single Business Identifier | A business registered with the Rural Payments service | |
| CPH - County Parish Holding number | A holding (land or premises) where livestock are kept | Format NN/NNN/NNNN |
| Land parcel identifier | A parcel of land on the RPA land register | Sheet reference and parcel number |
| Water body identifier | A water body under the Water Framework Directive classification | |
| Protected site code | A designated site such as an SSSI |
Proposing a new standard¶
If you need a standard that is not listed, check the Data Standards Authority first. If there is still a gap, raise an issue in this repository - the data architecture team will review it with the TDA.