Guidance for the Presentation of Government Statistics for Administrative Areas at Regional and Sub-regional Levels as at 5 May 2005

1. Introduction
2. Order of presentation of statistics
3. Table headings, footnotes and sub-totals for tables of regional statistics
4. Nomenclature and definitions
5. Non-standard geographies
6. Former/abolished areas
7. Practical presentation
8. Area codes
9. Other guidance

Annex A shows the presentation order of all UK administrative areas where there is no requirement to include former/abolished counties in England;
Annex B shows the presentation order of all UK administrative areas where there is a requirement to include former/abolished counties in England - see Section 6;
Annex C shows an optional lower level presentation for the London region - see Section 2.3(ii); and
Annex D shows an optional higher level presentation for the London region - see Section 2.3(ii).

Annexes (95Kb xls)

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Overview

This Guidance Note, endorsed by National Statistics Geography Group (NSGG), sets out the recommended standard presentation of statistics for administrative areas at regional and sub-regional levels in the United Kingdom. The presentation relates to the current local government structure (existing since 1 April 1998) and to the current structure of Government Office Regions (GORs) in England (existing since 3 August 1998 when the separate North West and Merseyside GORs merged to form the current North West GOR).

The recommended presentation is for use in publications (paper and electronic) and also statistics disseminated on the Web. It should be adopted unless there are valid reasons for not doing so, such as ranking areas according to a significant data item.

This Guidance Note is a revised version of the guidance published in February 2004, and has been updated to reflect changes to the term ‘Derry City’, the use of which has been challenged. Consultation with the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) has confirmed that although Derry City is the official name of the district council, Derry should be used when presenting statistics.

In addition, the annexes showing the presentation orders are now in .xls format rather than .pdf, to aid ease of use.

1.2 Background

The purpose of this Guidance Note is to provide a standard approach to the order of the presentation of statistics for administrative areas.

1.3 Dissemination, display and layout of statistics

In preparing statistical tables, it is recommended that the guidance for display and layout in 'Plain Figures' (Second Edition) (HMSO: ISBN 0-11-702039-7) is followed for both electronic and paper dissemination. Particularly relevant are Chapters 2 (what information to include, how to guide the reader, table orientation, choice of categories to display, accuracy, definitions, and footnotes to tables), 3 (structure and style of tables), and 5 (reference tables).

1.4 Annexes

There are four annexes attached to this Guidance Note:

• Annex A shows the presentation order of all UK administrative areas where there is no requirement to include former/abolished counties in England;
• Annex B shows the presentation order of all UK administrative areas where there is a requirement to include former/abolished counties in England - see Section 6;
• Annex C shows an optional lower level presentation for the London region - see Section 2.3(ii); and
• Annex D shows an optional higher level presentation for the London region - see Section 2.3(ii).

2 ORDER OF PRESENTATION OF STATISTICS

2.1 General principles

The general principle is that whenever entities are presented in groupings (eg. districts within county, wards within district) the order of presentation at each level of the grouping hierarchy is alphabetic. This principle applies to all levels, and all geographical breakdown of areas, whether using standard (eg. administrative areas) or other geographies.

Exceptions to this are the order of countries and English GORs, where a standard geographically-based order is well established (see Section 2.2), and the geographical order of the unitary authorities in Wales (see Section 2.3(iii)).

Grouping of entities in hierarchical fashion should be adopted as appropriate for the target readership. In many cases for the presentation of statistics based on administrative areas, the local government structure together with government office regions will provide a suitable standard hierarchy. In cases where this does not provide suitable groupings the NUTS* classification should be used. Non-standard geographical groupings should be developed only after such standard groupings have been considered, and these should be clearly defined and fully described. Maps are recommended (particularly with non-standard geography) to show the allocation of areas within higher level groupings.

*NUTS (Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics) is a European hierarchical classification of spatial units, comprising 5 levels, used for collecting, developing, harmonising and comparing the European Union's regional statistics.

**ONS Geography is able to provide support and guidance on the preparation of maps - see Section 9.

2.2 Order of presentation for countries and regions

The standard regional sub-division of England for the presentation of statistics is the government office regions. The standard order of presentations for the countries of the UK, and the government office regions within England, is given on page 3. This is one of the two exceptions to the principle of alphabetic ordering. The retention of this order of English regional divisions is recommended as it is in current general usage. It broadly follows a north/south basis. Note the recommended use of 'East' in statistical tables, even though the official name is the 'Government Office for the East of England'.

2.3 Order of presentation below country/regional level

(i) England

As noted earlier, the general principle for presentation is that whenever entities are presented in higher level groupings (eg. districts within county, counties within region) the order of presentation of each level of the grouping hierarchy is alphabetic.

The recommended presentation is for unitary authorities to be listed first, in alphabetical order, followed by districts (with counties, if appropriate), also in alphabetical order.

Alphabetical ordering applies whether using the standard administrative (local authority district/county) geography, or other standard or non-standard geographies.

(ii) London Region

Administrative areas within London (ie. the City of London and the boroughs) should be listed alphabetically and grouped into Inner and Outer London categories, as defined for NUTS level 2 and shown in Annexes A and B. If further sub-division is required, NUTS level 3 is recommended (see Annex C). If required, it is also acceptable for the administrative areas within London to be presented as a single list (see Annex D).

(iii) Wales

Unitary authorities in Wales should be ordered geographically on a north-south basis for both bi-lingual and single language publications. This represents a change from earlier guidance which stated that alphabetical ordering should be used in single language publications and geographical ordering in bi-lingual publications. This approach is favoured by the National Assembly for Wales.

(iv) Scotland

In Scotland the recommended order for the unitary authorities (council areas) is alphabetic, following both the general principle and usual practice by the Scottish Executive. The recommended listing is shown in Annexes A and B but see Section 4 regarding naming standards.

(v) Northern Ireland

Again, the order should be alphabetic - see Annexes A and B. Note that there are no counties listed for Northern Ireland as they have no official status and should therefore not be included as a hierarchy.

3 TABLE HEADINGS, FOOTNOTES AND SUB-TOTALS FOR TABLES OF REGIONAL STATISTICS

3.1 - The recommended heading for tables is 'UK by Countries and, within England, Government Office Regions'. Sub-totals for Great Britain/England and Wales are optional, as noted on the list in Section 2.2. Information on name changes and administrative area reorganisations, which can occur over time, can be included in footnotes but these should be kept to a minimum.

3.2 - If it is considered helpful to provide information about the area levels for which data are being provided it would be acceptable, if preferred, to extend the table heading as follows:

• for those areas included in Annexes A and B, the table heading should be 'UK by Countries and, within England, Government Office Regions, counties, London boroughs, metropolitan districts, unitary authorities and non-metropolitan districts; unitary authorities within Wales; council areas within Scotland; and district council areas within Northern Ireland';
• if the data being presented are limited to:
  - only the higher tier of local government where a two-tier structure exists; and
  - those areas where only a single tier of local government exists; the table heading should be 'UK by Countries and, within England, Government Office Regions, counties, London boroughs, metropolitan districts, and unitary authorities; unitary authorities within Wales; council areas within Scotland; and district council areas within Northern Ireland'.

4 NOMENCLATURE AND DEFINITIONS

The lists of areas in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in all annexes show the correct statutory names currently in force for administrative areas down to local authority district and equivalent levels. The use of statutory names leads to inconsistencies in the use of ampersands versus ‘and’ (eg. ‘Crewe and Nantwich’; ‘Ellesmere Port & Neston’); also in the abbreviation of Saint (eg. ‘St. Helens; ‘St Albans’) in some names.

The names in the Scottish lists are those preferred by the Scottish Executive for inclusion in publications and vary from the standard applied elsewhere in the UK through use of ampersands rather than ‘and’ in three unitary authorities (council areas).

It should be noted that in Northern Ireland the term ‘Derry’ should be used in preference to ‘Derry City’. This change has been confirmed by NISRA.

Name changes and geographical changes affecting the presentation order will be notified through the NSGG network.

5 NON-STANDARD GEOGRAPHIES

The principle described earlier, and illustrated in Annexes A and B with counties and local authority districts, is for alphabetic ordering at each level of the hierarchy. This principle should be applied to the presentation of statistics for other entities or groups (eg. planning authorities such as national parks, where these differ from the local authority districts). Any statistical publication using non-standard geographical areas should define those areas clearly, referencing where possible to standard geography, and using maps to enable users to establish location and boundaries.

6 FORMER/ABOLISHED AREAS

6.1 Availability of sub-totals for former/abolished counties

In exceptional cases, where there is a known requirement for sub-totals for the former/abolished counties for particular users for historical or time-series purposes, the figures should be included at the base of each relevant region with an accompanying footnote. A separate presentation including the former/abolished counties is shown in Annex B.

These sub-totals should not be included as a matter of course but only when there is a known requirement; the information could be made available on request rather than including them in published tables. Annex A shows the presentation where sub-totals for former/abolished counties are not required.

Users can calculate totals for former/abolished counties in most cases when information is presented at local authority district level.

6.2 Abolished counties

The former counties of Avon, Cleveland, Humberside, and Hereford and Worcester have been abolished and should not normally appear in tables presenting statistics for dates subsequent to their abolition. The county of Berkshire still exists but as its county council has been abolished Berkshire should not appear either. An Isle of Wight council replaced the former Isle of Wight county council in April 1995 and so Isle of Wight continues to appear in the presentation.

Where it is impossible to avoid referring to one of the abolished counties, the abolished name should not normally be used, as it is no longer an administrative area. Instead, the following nomenclature is recommended:

The descriptive names are derived from the agreed names used for the relevant NUTS areas, where appropriate. Where these areas are presented as footnotes, the following form of words should be used:

• 'Bristol/Bath area' refers to the area previously covered by the administrative county of 'Avon' which was abolished and replaced by unitary authorities on 1 April 1996;
• 'Tees Valley less Darlington' refers to the area previously covered by the administrative county of 'Cleveland' which was abolished and replaced by unitary authorities on 1 April 1996;
• 'The Humber' refers to the area previously covered by the administrative county of 'Humberside' which was replaced by unitary authorities on 1 April 1996; and
• 'Herefordshire and Worcestershire' refers to the area previously covered by the administrative county of 'Hereford and Worcester' which was replaced by the county of Worcestershire and the County of Herefordshire unitary authority on 1 April 1998.

Note that the Royal County of Berkshire, although now administered by six unitary authorities, has been retained for 'ceremonial' purposes and it is therefore acceptable to refer to 'Berkshire'; as the other counties listed here were abolished their names should no longer be used.

6.3 Former counties

Where county borders in England have changed due to local government reorganisation, any footnote for the former county should identify the current authorities it covered, and the date of the change.

6.4 Sub-totals for other groupings

The four new unitary authorities created from the abolished county of Cleveland (Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees) have joined with Darlington unitary authority, previously part of Durham (county), for structure planning purposes. It is preferable to use this group of unitary authorities, wherever possible, if statistics need to be given at a level above the individual authorities. In cases where comparison with previous data is essential, 'Tees Valley less Darlington', as shown above for the equivalent of the abolished county of Cleveland, would be acceptable but it should be made clear in the footnotes which authorities are included if Tees Valley is not defined elsewhere. A sample layout is included in Annex B.

7 PRACTICAL PRESENTATION

In drawing up the annexes, some basic presentation rules have been adopted:

• the title 'County' has been used in some county headings in Annex B to differentiate between current and former counties with the same name; 'County' does not form part of the statutory name;
• the metropolitan counties, which were abolished on 1 April 1986 as administrative areas but remain as ceremonial entities, are identified by '(Met County)' after the name;
• 'Isles of Scilly' is presented separately because it does not form part of Cornwall; the Isles of Scilly are administered by a separate council but are usually associated with Cornwall; and
• 'City of' (as in 'Bristol', 'Edinburgh' and 'Kingston upon Hull' - but not 'London') and 'County of' (as in 'Herefordshire') are ignored in identifying alphabetical ordering but should be written as 'City/County of .…' in any text and on any maps.

In a change from the previous version of this guidance note, the following presentation rule has also been adopted:

• 'St.' or 'St' as an abbreviation for Saint is now presented alphabetically based on its abbreviated form (eg. St. Helens should now be ordered after Sefton).

This change has been prompted by the increasing trend towards presentation of data in electronic format using software which automatically sorts data. Users have requested that the presentation order reflects the automatic ordering to ensure consistency between data presented in electronic and more traditional outputs. This presentation rule is also being used in the Guidance Note for health areas.

8 AREA CODES

It is recommended that the appropriate area codes are presented when disseminating tables electronically. The inclusion of area codes with tables disseminated on paper is currently optional.

The area codes provided in the annexes are the standard codes used by the Office for National Statistics. Further information on standard naming and coding can be found on the National Statistics website:

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/snac.asp

Standard codes are not currently available for metropolitan counties, former/abolished counties, other area groupings and sub-divisions of London. In these cases the 'publication codes' used for Census ouputs have been given in the annexes.

The coding frame for administrative areas is being reviewed during 2005. If new codes are introduced the Guidance Note will be revised to reflect the changes.

9 OTHER GUIDANCE

If further guidance or support is required on any aspect of the presentation order for statistics, including the presentation of statistics for other geographies, please contact:

ONS Geography
Office for National Statistics
Segensworth Road
Titchfield
Fareham
Hampshire
PO15 5RR

Tel: +44 (0) 1329 444971
E-mail: ons.geography@ons.gov.uk

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This page last revised: Wednesday, 19 November 2008