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# Lesson 1: The Categories of Passport Data

> Academy Foundations Module 3 Lesson 1: the six categories of Digital Product Passport content under the Product Information Readiness Model, and why treating passport data as one list stalls a programme.

**Module 3, Lesson 1 of 3. About 9 minutes.**

## Orientation

The question "what goes in the passport" is usually asked as if the answer is a single list, and
that framing is the first thing that has to go. A passport carries several kinds of information
that behave nothing alike: some of it is stable for the life of the product, some of it changes
every batch, some of it you already hold and some of it you will have to ask a supplier for the
first time. Treat it as one list and you will collect the easy attributes twice and never notice
the hard ones are missing.

Sorting passport content into categories is not an academic exercise. It is how you find out, in a
single afternoon, which parts of the work are a data project and which parts are a procurement
programme with a much longer lead time.

No. Module 2 established that carrying the duty and holding the data are separate questions: the
duty tells you who is accountable, not where the underlying attributes currently live. This module
picks up exactly that gap.

## Learning Objectives

## Reading the Six Categories

The Product Information Readiness Model groups everything a passport might carry into six
categories: product identity, product composition, compliance information, sustainability
information, lifecycle information, and supply chain information. The categories are not a
checklist that every product must satisfy in full. They are a lens: a way of asking, for each kind
of content, where it currently lives, who owns it and how ready it is to publish.

Read the canonical article below with one question in mind for each category: if I had to produce
this today, would I be assembling data or would I be starting a request to someone who has never
been asked. The two categories that usually answer "assembling" are identity and compliance,
because that information already exists to support other obligations. The categories that usually
answer "starting a request" are composition, sustainability and supply chain, because they depend
on what is held one or more tiers upstream. Lifecycle information sits in the middle: it typically
exists, but as a manual rather than as structured fields.

**The common misreading** is to treat the six categories as six equally weighted boxes to fill in
parallel, or worse, to treat "we do not yet have a field list" as a reason no work can start. Every
category can be assessed for readiness today, category by category, without knowing the final list
a delegated act will eventually specify. The categories tell you where to look and who to ask. They
do not tell you the exact fields, and no product is required to carry all six in full: scope for a
given product is set by the delegated act or regulation that applies to it.

A tieback framework that groups Digital Product Passport content into six categories of
information, so an organisation can assess where each category originates, who owns it, and how
ready it is to publish, without waiting for a final regulatory field list.

**Use it when** you are scoping a passport programme for the first time, briefing a steering group
on where the real gaps sit, or being asked to estimate how much of the work is already done.

**Where it fails:** it tells you what kind of information exists and roughly how ready each
category is. It does not tell you the exact fields a specific product must carry, it does not
resolve which of several conflicting sources is authoritative, and it says nothing about who may
see which category. Do not use it as a substitute for the delegated act once one exists for your
product group.

#### [What Information Does a Digital Product Passport Contain?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-information-does-a-digital-product-passport-contain)

Read the six categories in detail, then the section explaining that no product requires all six in
full. That second section is the guard rail against over-collecting.

#### Sorting the Aurelia S2 into six categories

Identity: model, variant and serial numbering for the trimmer and, separately, for the battery
pack, which needs its own identifier because it is a removable component with its own regime.

Composition: the housing polymer and the battery cell chemistry, both of which sit with the
contract manufacturer and have never been requested in a purchase specification.

Compliance: the declaration of conformity and test reports already exist for market access. They
exist as documents, not as structured fields, which is a different problem to solve.

Sustainability: nothing at product level exists yet. Group level sustainability reporting exists,
but it answers a different question to "what is true of this specific trimmer".

Lifecycle: a printed manual covers maintenance and battery replacement. The content is there; it
has never been split into addressable fields.

Supply chain: country of manufacture is known. Chain of custody for the battery cells beyond the
immediate contract manufacturer is not.

#### Sort one of your own products into the six categories

Take one product line and write one line per category: what exists, in what form, and who
currently holds it. Do not try to fill every category completely. The exercise succeeds if it
tells you which two or three categories are the genuine gap, because those are the ones with
procurement lead time attached.

## Knowledge Check

## Takeaways

* Passport content sorts into six categories: identity, composition, compliance, sustainability, lifecycle and supply chain.
* No product requires all six categories in full: scope is set per product group.
* Identity and compliance are usually assembly problems; composition, sustainability and supply chain are usually requests to someone outside the organisation.
* Readiness in every category can be assessed today, without a final field list.

**If you remember one thing:** sort before you collect, because the categories tell you which gaps are a data task and which are a procurement programme.

## Sources

This lesson draws on
[What Information Does a Digital Product Passport Contain?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-information-does-a-digital-product-passport-contain),
sections The Product Information Readiness Model, The Six Categories in Detail, and Does Every
Product Require All of This Information.

## Related Docs

* [Lesson 2: Who Sees What](/docs/academy/foundations/module-3/lesson-2)
* [Module 3 overview](/docs/academy/foundations/module-3)
* [What Information Does a Digital Product Passport Contain?](/docs/knowledge-base/digital-product-passports/what-information-does-a-digital-product-passport-contain)
* [Glossary: Digital Product Passport](/docs/knowledge-base/glossary/digital-product-passport)