Data sources

Through collaborative working between Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace, the Local Government Agency and Improvement Service, a single definitive spatial address database for Great Britain has been created and maintained since September 2011 for England and Wales, and April 2012 for Scotland.

This initiative supports the UK Location Strategy concept of a 'core reference geography', including the key principles of the European Union INSPIRE directive, that data should only be collected once and kept where it can be maintained most effectively.

AddressBase Data Inputs

The creation of AddressBase products brings together the best parts of:

Local Government’s National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG)

The National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) provides the most up-to-date addresses including street names and numbers from each Local Authority’s LLPG in England and Wales. This data also provides a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) for each address encompassing residential, commercial and public infrastructure such as fire stations.

The One Scotland Address Gazetteer (OSG)

One Scotland Address Gazetteer (OSG) provides the most up-to-date addresses including street names and numbers from each Scottish Local Authority’s CAG. This data also provides a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) for each address encompassing residential, commercial and public infrastructure such as fire stations.

Ordnance Survey owned large scale data and coordinates

Ordnance Survey provides a wide range of additional addresses including Objects Without a Postal Address (OWPAs) such as Telephone Exchanges, a wider spatial context by including references for both the OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS MasterMap Highways Networks Layer which the address feature is related to and additional classification information.

Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF)

PAF contains approximately 30 million Royal Mail addresses that are identified as receiving post in Great Britain. Addresses from the NLPG and OSG are matched to the PAF addresses to provide the Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) into product and supplement the Local Authority address with information such as organisation name, postal town and postcode.

Valuation Office Agency

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) gives the government the valuations and property advice needed to support taxation and benefits within England and Wales. Addresses from the NLPG are matched to the VOA address to provide the Unique Address Reference Number (UARN), VOA Special Category and Primary Description classification codes in product.

Roles and Responsibilities

GeoPlace

GeoPlace is a limited liability partnership jointly owned by the Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey and is the centre of excellence for spatial address and street information in Great Britain. GeoPlace brings together local government's address and streets gazetteers with information from Ordnance Survey, Improvement Service, Royal Mail’s PAF dataset and VOA addresses into a central spatial address data hub. The database hub is updated by GeoPlace based upon the receipt of data from all the contributing data sources.

GeoPlace manage this hub and provide address and street information to be utilised in the AddressBase products.

Diagram show relationship between GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey, LLPGs, Royal Mail, Scottish LGs

England and Wales

At present, there are 314 local authorities in England and Wales, inputting updates to their Local Land and Property Gazetteers (LLPG). These changes are submitted to the GeoPlace Hub daily, weekly or monthly as part of their update schedule.

On receipt of these updates, they are checked to ensure that they have been produced in accordance with the NLPG Data Entry Conventions and they are in compliance with the national standard for the representation of address information – BS 7666 Parts 1 and 2.

Scotland

There are currently 32 local authorities in Scotland which update their local address gazetteers on a daily, weekly or monthly as part of their update schedule to the OSG. The Improvement Service check each

update to ensure compliance with the national standard for addressing (BS7666.2006) and the Scottish Gazetteer Conventions 1-3.

Local Authority Custodians

One of the key strengths of AddressBase products is the collection and verification of data at the local level. A real benefit is the capture of addresses at the earliest point in their lifecycle, and then this address being maintained by the local authority.

To do this the Local Custodians will utilise the wealth of information at their disposal until the address is demolished (when it becomes a historical record).

Local Custodians will use information such as:

• Building and Development control

• Planning and Land Charges

• Waste Collection

• Electoral Roll

LLPG custodians (England and Wales) are allocated sequential batches of UPRNs by GeoPlace, which are assigned by the LLPG custodian at the creation of a new address.

The OSG (Scotland) custodians are allocated sequential batches of UPRNs by the Improvement Service, which are assigned by the OSG custodian at the creation of a new address.