Data standards

This page reproduces the text of the electoral registration data standards document on standards for:

Name standards
Person given name
Person initials
Person family name
Person title
Person name suffix
Date of birth
Person date of birth
Address standards
UK address standard
Unique Property Reference Number
International address standard
British Forces Post Office Address

Name standards

Standards as referred to at section 1(a) of the Direction Under the Representation of the People Act 1983:

'The person name as recorded on the register shall be in accordance with the name
standard specified in the attached document.'

Person given name

Name	Person given name
Description	The forename or given name of a person.
Business format	Max. 35 characters.
Validations	Any allowable character from UNICODE set of characters. Consecutive spaces are not allowed.
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	BSEN 7372:1993
Verification	Optional

Person initials

Name	Person initials
Description	Used to record a person's initials.
Business format	Max. 35 characters with a space between each initial.
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Verification	Optional
Comment	This can be used to record a person's full set of initials or used in conjunction with and in addition to a Person Given Name. General practice is to record the first Given Name in full and then use initials for other Given Names.

Person family name

Name	Person family name
Description	That part of a person's name used to describe family, clan, tribal group, or marital association.
Business format	Max. 35 characters.
Validation	Consecutive spaces are not allowed.
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	BSEN 7372:1993
Verification	Compulsory

Person title

Name	Person title
Description	Standard form of address used to precede a person's name.
Business format	Max. 35 characters.
Values	The full available range of generally recognised titles is permitted. However, if any of the following are used then the value input must conform to the following format: Mr Mrs Miss Ms Dr Rev Sir Lady Lord Dame
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	BSEN 28601
Comment	A person can have multiple occurrences of a title.

Person name suffix

Name	Person initials
Description	A textual suffix that may be added to the end of a person's name, for example, OBE, MBE, BSc, JP, GM.
Business format	Max. 35 characters.
Validations	1. The first character of each occurrence must be A - Z. 2. Consecutive spaces are not allowed. 3. Each occurrence must be separated by a space.
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	BSEN 7372:1993
Comment	This is used mainly for Senior and Junior suffixes to differentiate individuals in the same family with the same forenames and initials.

Date of birth

Standards as referred to at section 1(b):

'The date of birth, where already collected, must comply with the Date of Birth standard specified in the attached document.'

Person date of birth

Name	Person date of birth
Description	The date on which a person was or is officially deemed to have been born
Business format	10 characters in the format DD/MM/YYYY
Validations	Values less than 10 in the day, month or year elements should be entered with a zero in the first position Days must not be greater than 30 in April, June, September and November Days must not be greater than 28 in February except when 29 is allowed for a leap year Date must not be in the future Date must not be later than Person Death Date where held
Value	YYYY should be a valid year number MM in Range 01-12 DD in Range 01-31
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes W3C Recommendation 02 May 2001
Comment	Mandatory for all electors where currently collected. Under the representation of the People (England and Wales) Regulations 2001, where a registration officer has doubts about a person's age, he/she may require that person to produce either a birth certificate or a statutory declaration as to the person's date of birth.

Address standards

UK address standard

Standards as referred to at section 1(c):

'All electoral registration data pertaining to an elector with a qualifying or postal, proxy, or postal/proxy, in the UK, with the exception of those specified at section 1(e), must conform to the UK Address Standard, which must include a Unique Property Reference Number, as specified in the attached document.'

Permission to reproduce extracts derived from Spatial datasets for geographical referencing Part 2 Specification for a land and property gazetteer (BS7666-2: 2006) is granted by British Standards Institute.

Name	UK Address Standard
Description	A geographic hierarchy of address elements, which will dictate a standard form for a given address
Business format	SAON - Number, name and/or description of the Second Addressable Object: 100 characters; optional
	PAON - Number, name and/or description of the Primary Addressable Object: 100 Characters; mandatory
	Street - Name, number or description of street: 100 characters
	Locality - 35 characters	Mandatory - At least one of these components must be present
	Town - 30 characters
	Admin. Area - 30 characters
	Post Town - as assigned by the Royal Mail: 30 characters; optional only required where different to town
	Post Code - as assigned by the Royal Mail: 8 characters; mandatory
Validation	Consecutive spaces are not allowed.
Owner	e-GU [e-Government Unit]
Based on	BS7666-2: 2006
Comment	Mandatory

Unique Property Reference Number

Name	Unique Property Reference Number
Description	A unique identifier for each land and property unit.
Business format	Max. 12 characters
Validation	BS7666 - Positive integer minimum length of one digit and maximum length of 12.
Value	Positive integer in the range 1 - 999999999999
Based on	BS7666-2: 2006
Verification	The value of the Unique Property Reference Number should be verified as part of the address validation process using the National Land and Property Gazetteer where possible.
Comments	Mandatory

International address standard

Standards as referred to at section 1(d):

'All electoral registration data pertaining to an elector with a postal, proxy, or postal/proxy, outside of the UK, must conform to the International Address Standard specified in the attached document.'

Name	International Address Standard
Description	Postal delivery point outside of the United Kingdom
Business format	Address: Location of property, minimum of one line, maximum of seven: 90 characters; mandatory Country: Destination country: 35 characters; mandatory Post Code/Zip Code - As assigned by destination county postal system: eight characters; optional (to be completed if provided) International/Overseas Flag
Comments	Mandatory for non-UK addresses

British Forces Post Office Address

Standards as referred to at section 1(e):

'All electoral registration data relating to an elector with a qualifying or postal, proxy, or postal/proxy, whose address is provided as a British Forces Post Office, must conform to the British Forces Post Office Address Standard specified in the attached document.'

Name	British Forces Post Office Address
Description	British Forces Delivery
Business format	Address: British Forces Post Office, minimum of one line, maximum of seven: 35 characters; mandatory British Forces Post Office Code: as assigned by the British Forces Post Office; mandatory
Validation	Must possess BFPO Postcode and at least one line
Comments	These addresses are neither international addresses, nor compliant with BS7666-2: 2006