Geographic Codes and Names of Scotland

In 2004 Scotland implemented a new coding and naming policy for Scottish statistical geographies aimed at geographies that are required for government administrative functions, legislation or publication of official statistics.

At the heart of this policy is the concept of a Government Statistical Service (GSS) nine digit alpha-numeric code which is divided into three elements:

Element	Code	Description
Country	Letter	S (for Scotland) T, U and V have also been reserved for Scotland
Entity	2 numbers	Geographic area type
Instance	6 numbers	Geographic area

Some geographies do not respect the border between Scotland and England i.e. the Travel to Work Areas of Berwick-upon-Tweed and Carlisle. These geographies are given a cross-border status country letter of ‘K’.

The principles of the coding and naming system are:

1. The coding is not hierarchical and does not contain embedded intelligence

2. A code can not be re-used

3. A new instance of a geographic area will be created with a new code only when a change occurs to it’s boundary. Not when a name changes.

Scottish register of geographic codes

The GSS codes are published in the Scottish Register of Geographic Codes by Scottish Government’s Digital Directorate. Current geographic area types and instances as of December 2020 are summarised below.

Area Type	Areas Instances and Numbers
Administrative	Council Areas (32) Country (1) Local Administrative Units 1 (41) Local Administrative Units 2 (0) Local Resilience Partnerships (12) Regional Resilience Partnerships (3) Scottish Marine Regions (11) Strategic Development Plan Areas (4)
Census	Census Detailed Characteristics (866) Census Local Characteristics (1012)
Crime and justice	Criminal Justice Authorities (8) Police Force Areas (1) Scottish Fire and Rescue Local Senior Officer Areas (17) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (1) Scottish Fire and Rescue Service Delivery Areas (3) Scottish Police Divisions (13)
Economic	Highlands and Islands Enterprise (8) Scottish Enterprise Regions (6) Urban Regeneration Companies (6)
Electoral	Electoral Wards (354) European Electoral Regions (1) Scottish Parliamentary Constituencies (73) Scottish Parliamentary Regions (8) United Kingdom Parliamentary Constituencies (59)
Health	Health Board Areas (14) Integration Authorities (31) ISD Health Board of Treatment (2)
Housing and regeneration	Broad Rental Market Areas (18) Regeneration Outcome Agreement Areas – Community Planning Partnerships (28) Regeneration Outcome Agreement Areas – Local Areas (180) Regeneration Outcome Agreement Areas – Scotland (1)
Planning	Local Planning Authorities (34)
Statistical building block	Data Zones (6976) Intermediate Zones (1279) Output Areas (46,351)
Other	Island Groups (57) Locality (655) National Parks (2) Settlement (519) Travel to Work Areas (48) Workplace Zones (5375)
Transport	Regional Transport Partnerships (7)

Na h-Eileanan Siar

The coding and naming policy points out that it has been common practice to refer to Na h-Eileanan Siar as Eilean Siar and that this should be stopped as it is not grammatically correct.

A further complication exists in that as of January 1^st 1998 the formal legal name of Na h-Eileanan Siar is the similar Na h-Eileanan an Iar. This is used for the Scottish and UK Parliamentary Constituencies.

Code history database

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) holds a UK wide database of changes to the GSS codes in their GSS Code History Database (CHD).

UK context

In 2011 the ONS adopted a similar policy to Scotland called the Coding and Naming Policy for UK Statistical Geographies. They have a useful beginners guide to UK geography and a pack of UK guidance and FAQs.