UK Domains Naming Structure
===========================
There are twelve defined second-level domains within the uk top level
domain:

ac.uk         Academic post-school-age institutions
bl.uk         British Library
co.uk         Commercial entities
gov.uk        Governmental bodies
ltd.uk        Registed private limited companies
net.uk        Network providers
nhs.uk        National Health Service
mod.uk        Ministry of Defence
name.uk
org.uk        Generic organisations
parliament.uk UK Parliament
plc.uk        Registed public limited companies
sch.uk        Schools


There are occasional .uk domain names that get propagated that are outside
these defined second-level domains.  Should these spurious names be
treated as invalid?

ac.uk - Academic Institutions
-----------------------------
Tertiary education organisations and related research bodies.
Formation:        <name>.ac.uk
Clash resolution: First come first serverd, with later institutions
                  having to add extra parts to their name.
Examples:  stirling.ac.uk         Stirling University
           sheffield.ac.uk        Sheffield University
           sheffield-hallam.ac.uk Sheffield Hallam University
           sheffcoll.ac.uk        Sheffield Collage
           ucas.ac.uk             Univeristy Clearing & Admissions Service


co.uk - Commercial entities
---------------------------
If a name can be put in another category, it should be, especially
government bodies (gov.uk), political parties (org.uk), schools (sch.uk),
universities (ac.uk), community organisations (org.uk), etc.  A private
individual's personal address should also be org.uk.
Formation: <name>.co.uk
Many ISPs offer cheap or free address as a fourth-level domain on their
own domain formed as: <name>.<isp-name>.co.uk, for example,
fredsmith.freeserve.co.uk.
Clash resolution: first come, first served
Examples: demon.co.uk
          telewest.co.uk
          staybrite.co.uk
          mdfsnet.f9.co.uk


.gov.uk - Local Government Bodies
---------------------------------
County Councils, District Councils, Town Councils, Parish Councils
Government Departments, Regional Offices, etc.
These bodies should register in the gov.uk domain, and in particular the
must *NOT* register as .co.uk or .com as that would make it appear as
though they were commercial entities offering services for sale.  A recent
example of  as blood.co.uk - whether the blood service buys blood from
donors or not in this country, it really should be registered in the
nhs.uk domain, or failing that the org.uk domain.

In order of size:
Regional Assembly:
<name>-ra.gov.uk
examples: yorkshire-ra.gov.uk

County Council:
<name>-cc.gov.uk
examples: cambridgeshire-cc.gov.uk
          oxfordshire-cc.gov.uk
          shropshire-cc.gov.uk

District Council:
<name>.gov.uk
examples: sheffield.gov.uk
          rotherham.gov.uk
          scarborough.gov.uk

suffix -bc (borough council), -dc (district council) and -mbc
(metropolitan bourough council) are optional suffixes.  They should not be
needed as where any clas occurs, the non-district council should use a
suffixed name, eg pickering.gov.uk (district council) and
pickering-pc.gov.uk (parish council minor authority).

Town Council (minor authority):
<name>-tc.gov.uk
examples: stocksbridge-tc.gov.uk
          whitby-tc.gov.uk
          scarborough-tc.gov.uk

Parish Council (minor authority):
<name>-pc.gov.uk
examples: bradfield-pc.gov.uk
          ecclesfield-pc.gov.uk
          catcliffe-pc.gov.uk


gov.uk	Government bodies
	<district council>.gov.uk
	<county council>cc.gov.uk
	<parish council>pa.gov.uk

	sheffield.gov.uk	Sheffield District (City) Council
	surreycc.gov.uk		Surrey County Council
	bradfieldpa.gov.uk	Bradfield Parish Council

Also:
assembly.wales.gov.uk - The assembly
assembly.walse.gov.uk/cabinet - The executive
ni-assembly.gov.uk - The assembly
northernireland.gov.uk - The executive
open.gov.uk
hm-treasury.gov.uk
lgce.gov.uk - Local Government Commission for England




ltd.uk
------
Companies registered at Companies House as limited companies under the
Companies Act.


net.uk
------


nhs.uk - National Health Service
--------------------------------
<institute>.<region>.nhs.uk
<region> is one of: swest, sthames, etc.
examples: csth.northy.nhs.uk


	sheffield-ha.nhs.uk	Sheffield Health Authority


mod.uk - Ministry of Defense
----------------------------


name.uk - Personcal Users
-------------------------


org.uk - Non-commercial organisations
-------------------------------------
Political parties, community organisations, charities, trades unions,
professional institutes, private individuals, etc.  In particular, some
bodies could be accused of misrepresenting themselves if they did not
register within org.uk.  A recent example was conservatives.com registered
by the UK Conservative Party.  Are they really a trans-national commercial
entity?  What are they selling?
Formation: <name>.org.uk
Clash resolution: political parties - name as per Political Parties
Registration Act, all others - first come first served

Examples: libdems.org.uk
          labour.org.uk
          liberalparty.org.uk
          mensa.org.uk
          fredsmith.org.uk
          sharrow-cf.org.uk


parliament.uk - UK National Parliament
--------------------------------------
United Kingdom national parliament, as distinct from government. 
Constitutionally, parliament is distinct and separate from government and
parliament should not be identified as being with government, as
government is formed from parliament. parliament.uk is normally only used
for email addresses.
Formation:        <surname><initial>@parliament.uk
Clash resolution: ?
Examples:         allanr@parliament.uk     Richard Allan MP
                  dawsonk@parliament.uk    Kate Dawson, PA to Richard Allan MP
scottish.parliament.uk


plc.uk
------
Companies registered at Companies House as public limited companies under
the Companies Act, ie floated on a UK stock exchange.


sch.uk - Schools
----------------
<school name>.<lea name>.sch.uk
examples: myersgrove.sheffield.sch.uk
          wisewood.sheffield.sch.uk
          caedmon.scarborough.sch.uk
          st-davids.bromley.sch.uk



Notes
-----
scottish.parliament.uk ?
welsh.assembly.uk ?
northernireland.assembly.uk ?
--> part of gov.uk domain