England, Great Britain or the United Kingdom: what each name covers

The short answer

The United Kingdom is Great Britain and Northern Ireland. That is the definition in Schedule 1 of the Interpretation Act 1978, the statute whose first schedule defines words used in UK legislation.[1] Great Britain is England, Scotland and Wales; Defra's guidance on protected food names spells it out in those words, "Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales)", and treats Northern Ireland separately.[2] England is one of the four countries the Office for National Statistics calls the constituent countries of the UK.[6]

So Northern Ireland is in the United Kingdom but not in Great Britain, and Scotland and Wales are in Great Britain but not in England. Wikidata's community-edited descriptions, which XTOUR uses only to name each city's nation, call Edinburgh the capital city of Scotland, Cardiff the capital city of Wales and Belfast the capital city of Northern Ireland; none of the three is in England.[16]

Who is outside the UK

Two groups of islands and territories are tied to the UK without being part of it, and UK law has a wider term that takes in one of them.

The Crown Dependencies. Jersey, Guernsey (with Alderney and Sark) and the Isle of Man are, in the Ministry of Justice's words, "not part of the UK but are self-governing dependencies of the Crown", with their own legislatures, courts and legal systems and no members in the UK parliament. The UK government is responsible for their defence and international relations.[3]

The British Islands. UK law has a wider term for the UK plus those islands: the Interpretation Act defines the "British Islands" as the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.[1]

The Overseas Territories. Gibraltar, Bermuda and the other territories are outside the UK as well. The living heritage inventories hosted by the UK National Commission for UNESCO describe both the Crown Dependencies and the Overseas Territories as self-governing entities "not incorporated into the UK's legal or political framework".[4] The same Commission counts World Heritage sites for "the UK and Overseas Territories" together, listing Gibraltar's Gorham's Cave Complex and Bermuda's St George's alongside British sites, which is why a UK heritage list can include places that are not in the UK.[5]

Where the difference shows up for a traveller

On food labels. Protected food and drink names follow the Great Britain and Northern Ireland split: Defra says the UK schemes protect names sold in Great Britain and the EU schemes protect names sold in Northern Ireland and the EU.[2] A "UK" scheme that stops at the Irish Sea is the clearest everyday case of the two names meaning different things; UK protected food and drink names has the detail.

On number plates. GOV.UK's number plate rules allow an optional flag with national identifier letters below it, and the list of identifiers mixes all the levels: UNITED KINGDOM or UK, GREAT BRITAIN or GB, ENGLAND or ENG, SCOTLAND or SCO, CYMRU or CYM, and WALES. The flags offered are the Union flag, the Cross of St George, the Saltire and the Red Dragon of Wales. The same page says a white oval UK sticker may be needed when driving outside the UK.[11] XTOUR has not read Northern Ireland's own number plate rules.

On heritage tickets and memberships. Heritage policy is set nation by nation, because culture and heritage are devolved: the governments of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each set their own policy.[4] English Heritage describes itself as a charity caring for sites in every part of England; Historic Environment Scotland as the lead public body for Scotland's historic environment; Cadw as the Welsh Government's historic environment service; and in Northern Ireland the Department for Communities' Historic Environment Division looks after the historic environment.[15][14][13][12] XTOUR's reading: which heritage body to look up depends first on which nation a site is in, and English Heritage's remit, by its own description, is England. How the bodies' memberships compare is covered in National Trust, English Heritage, Historic Environment Scotland or Cadw membership.

On maps and addresses. Below the national level, the four countries are divided differently. The ONS describes England's layers of regions, counties, districts, unitary authorities and London boroughs; Scotland's 32 council areas since 1996; Wales's 22 unitary authorities since 1996; and Northern Ireland's 11 local government districts since 2015.[10][9][7][8] The ONS itself says the UK's hierarchy of areas is complicated by these differing structures.[6] XTOUR's reading: a "county" on a UK map or heritage list can mean different things in different nations, and an older county name may sit beside a current council area on the same page.

How XTOUR files its UK destinations

XTOUR files all twelve of its UK destinations under one country page, the United Kingdom; it does not treat England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland as separate countries in its catalogue. Each destination's own nation, as Wikidata describes it:[16]

The table restates the Wikidata descriptions cited above.[16] Links: London, Bath, York, Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Canterbury, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness, Cardiff and Belfast.

XTOUR names the nation wherever it changes which body runs a site or which rules apply, and uses "Great Britain" only for England, Scotland and Wales together.

What XTOUR does not know

This page makes no statement about passports, visas, border checks, customs or currency between the four nations or with the Crown Dependencies; XTOUR has not read official pages on any of them. It also makes no political or constitutional claim beyond the definitions quoted from the legislation and government pages above.