UK Parliament Controlled Vocabulary

The UK Parliament controlled vocabulary is maintained by our Indexing and Data Management Section (IDMS).

Our vocabulary is defined using the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) data model. SKOS is a W3C standard establishing a common data model for thesauri, taxonomies, classification schemes and subject heading systems. It enables data and technology sharing across diverse applications.

An introduction to SKOS is available in the SKOS primer W3C working group note.

The full SKOS specification is available in the SKOS reference W3C recommendation.

SKOS

  1. Concept scheme

    A SKOS concept scheme can be viewed as an aggregation of one or more SKOS concepts.

  2. Concept

    A SKOS concept can be viewed as an idea or notion; a unit of thought.

  3. Collection

    A SKOS collection is a labeled and/or ordered group of SKOS concepts.