Hi, I've been looking at the EPD dataset and was wondering why the PCO Code seems to have two trailing zeroes, e.g. 01V00 versus 01V. I couldn't find anything in the documentation (apologies if I've missed) and from the NHS organisation data and search tool https://odsportal.digital.nhs.uk/Organisation/Search it seems that there isn't a code for 01V00 but there is for 01V. Is this a future-looking or future-proofing change where the organisation codes will duly change?

Hi

I will look into this issue and get an answer posted asap

Thanks

Paul

Thanks Paul - much appreciated

Hi

We store and release the PCO codes with 5 characters that is because some organisations do require all 5 characters i.e. some of the new Sub ICB level organisations.

Therefore the extra "padding zeros" are erroneousness and dont mean anything on many organisations' PCO codes. There is some information at this link https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/information-standards/information-standards-and-data-collections-including-extractions/publications-and-notifications/standards-and-collections/dapb0090-health-and-social-care-organisation-reference-data#:~:text=October%202020%3A%20Following%20a%20pause,and%20numeric%20characters%20e.g.%20G7H8J.

But essentially this just states that something called the ANANA code will be in 5 character format going forward.

Ok many thanks for the update Paul - that's useful to get confirmation.

I've already incorporated a step in the data pipeline to strip of trailing zeros if the last two characters are 00 for a subset of the ODS roles.

At the moment, there aren't any valid 5-character PCO codes that have trailing zeros but I guess this solution is a bit of a hostage to fortune.

Thanks for your help Paul - closing this now