Abstract
The lack of a regional tier of government in the UK has led to a multitude of different geographic entities being set up within the country, making compilation of UK statistics complex. This paper uses the example of labour market statistics to illustrate the issues and problems related to the plethora of geographies in the UK.
Postcodes, although not a geography in the true sense, are used for much of the data supplied and collected by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Both a frozen and a current Central Postcode Directory (CPD) are in operation. A frozen geography allows comparisons over time unaffected by boundary changes: the frozen CPD currently in use reflects ward boundaries in existence at the time of the 1991 Population Census.
The ONS is developing a policy to give maximum flexibility for disseminating sub-national data, which would involve each series being held at the smallest feasible geography and being made available on both a current and a frozen basis. Linked with this is the development of a Standard Geographic Base which provides a model to enable any spatial unit to be described uniquely.
The issue of standards will increasingly become more important than the technological constraints. Problems such as confidentiality and protecting against disclosure when using multiple geographies will become an ever more important issue. The more flexible the systems we build, the better we can meet user needs.
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