AddressBase Technical Specification

This technical specification provides detailed technical information about AddressBase. It is targeted at technical users and software developers.

AddressBase provides an address product containing both residential and commercial addresses where a Local Authority address has been matched to a Royal Mail PAF address. This allows users to link additional information about a property to a single address. The product also provides enhancements to the Royal Mail PAF data by assigning an X and Y coordinate on British National Grid and an ETRS89 projection, as well as a primary level classification, and a representative point code describing the positional quality.

This technical specification includes the following sections:

• Data formats

• Supply and update

• AddressBase Premium structure

• Feature types

• Code list and enumerations

• CSV to GML mapping

• Example records

AddressBase fundamentals

Additional documentation covering the complete family of AddressBase products is available in the AddressBase Fundamentals pages. These covers key elements of design for AddressBase products, including:

• Future and past publication dates

• Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN)

• Coordinate reference systems

• Classification scheme

• Data sources

• Street names and numbering

• Currency completeness and precision

• Product supply

• AddressBase local custodian codes

• AddressBase Islands local custodian codes