Glossary and data dictionary

Fix the meaning of every term and every field, so that the same word means the same thing in every file.

Start in the first week. Add each new term on the day it first appears. Feeds: every document, above all the rules register, the requirements and the non-functional requirements.

• Define each term in words that do not repeat it.
• Say what the term applies to, and where two uses of it differ.
• Cite the source of the definition.
• Add the nearest term it must not be confused with.
• For each data field, give its type, its format and its time zone or unit, and say where its value comes from.

1. Does each term mean the same in every file? Answered in Sheet "Terms": each term is defined once; where a quoted source uses another word, the "Not to be confused with" column names it.
2. Where do two sources use different words for similar things? Answered in Sheet "Terms", column "Not to be confused with": exemption and exception; internal review and reconsideration; clarification and particulars; applicant and requester. "Not held" is one term with two outcomes, because the regimes treat it differently.
3. Which field holds the date of receipt, and in which time zone? Answered in Data dictionary: "Date of receipt", in Europe/London, calculated from "Received at (UK local)", itself calculated from "Received at (UTC)", or from "Clarification received" (DEC-13).
4. Which fields are calculated, and from what? Answered in Data dictionary, column "Calculated from": Received at (UK local), Date of receipt, Day 1, Deadline, New deadline and Review deadline.

• Defining a term with itself. You can spot it when the definition repeats the term and adds nothing a newcomer could use.
• Fields with no owner or source: a field that nobody sets and no rule needs.
• Dates with no time zone: two systems record the same moment on different days.
• A glossary that drifts from the rules register: a word used in a rule is defined differently in the glossary, or not at all.

• Where the two regimes use different words for similar things, each word has its own row, and "Not to be confused with" points to its twin. Rejected: one merged entry, which would hide the rule that differs.
• The time of receipt is kept in UTC, and the date of receipt is worked out in UK local time (DEC-13). Rejected: a date only, which in summer moves a request that arrives just after midnight to the previous day, as EX-06 shows.
• "Information Commission" carries the one sentence about the old name (CR-01). Rejected: "ICO" as the term, because section 50 of FOIA, applied by regulation 18 of the EIR, names the Information Commission from 30 September 2026. A notice uses the name the law uses.
• "Deadline" is defined as the latest day, not the target, because both regimes first ask for a reply promptly or as soon as possible. Rejected: treating the latest day the law allows as the due date for every request.