🔃OS ESG Overview

This overview introduces the OS ESG and gives context for all users – highlighting key features, providing examples of potential uses, and listing details such as supply formats, currency, etc.

The OS Emergency Services Gazetteer (OS ESG) is a single centralised source of critical information that allows first responders to precisely identify locations when the need is greatest.

It was developed in collaboration with the Emergency Services, who provided invaluable feedback. It provides enhanced data, such as road and motorway junctions, that improves incident response, incident reporting and situational awareness.

The OS ESG offers a national view for Great Britain (i.e. England, Wales and Scotland).

The OS ESG does not provide data for Northern Ireland, the Isle of Man, Jersey or Guernsey.

Image showing examples of the three types of features available in the OS Emergency Services Gazetteer – geographical names, road junctions, and bridge interactions. A background map has been included to provide context.

Key features

The key features of the OS ESG product are:

• Easy to filter and apply features: The OS ESG is easily filterable so you can select the features that you are interested in based on the classifications allocated to those features.

• Enhanced data for incident response and reporting: The gazetteer provides a single centralised source of information which allows for easier, faster and more precise identification of incident locations.

Product applications

The OS ESG enables emergency responders to be more accurately informed, improving emergency response times and public safety:

• Quick and accurate gazetteer searches

• Supports incident reporting and planning (for example, giving more accurate emergency response times)

• Enhanced data sharing across emergency services

• Supports incident and risk analysis and modelling (for example, analysing trends and patterns of road traffic collisions to both help identify risk and support incident planning)

• Improves operational reporting

Example image showing OS ESG slipways, with attribution pulled out for one slipway. A background map has been included to provide context.

Example image showing OS ESG weirs, with attribution pulled out for one weir. A background map has been included to provide context.

Data source

The OS ESG is published in the AddressBase Premium format and aligns fully with requirements specified during extensive user engagement. This is to ensure ease of use for the Emergency Services already consuming OS Address data in this format.

The OS ESG only includes the BasicLandPropertyUnit (BLPU), LandPropertyIdentifier (LPI) and Classification components, not the full AddressBase Premium model.

🔃 Datasets available

The following datasets are available within the OS ESG:

Dataset Name	Dataset Description
Name and Location of Road Junctions	Road Junction features will be provided for junctions where two or more named or numbered roads intersect. For junctions which have an official name or number, the official names will be provided where identified.
Geographical Names	A subset of Geographical Names features, such as named water and named geographic features, will be provided in the OS ESG. Extensive features greater than 20km² will not be provided.
🔃 Bridge Interactions	Additional attribution for Bridge features which identifies interactions between any networks passing over and / or under a bridge. 🆕 Names and / or numbers for some of the bridge features supplied via third parties are provided in the OS ESG as alternative ways to identify bridge features. Please note that to avoid duplication, bridges with a unique property reference number (UPRN) in the National Address Gazetteer (NAG) won't appear in OS ESG data; however, they will still be shown in OS Addressing products.
Tunnels	OS ESG Tunnel centroid point features are provided for all tunnel features in OS NGD Compound Structures. OS ESG Tunnel portal centroid point features are provided for a subset of tunnel features in OS NGD Compound Structures. Tunnel features of classification Subway or Pedestrian Tunnel portal will not be provided where the tunnel feature is less than 75m in length (where length is defined as the longest straight line distance between any possible portal points). Please note that to avoid duplication, tunnels with a UPRN in the NAG won't appear in OS ESG data; however, they will still be shown in OS Addressing products.
🆕 Slipways	Slipways features represent large platforms or made areas that slope down into the water from which boats can be launched. Please note that to avoid duplication, slipways with a UPRN in the NAG won't appear in OS ESG data; however, they will still be shown in OS Addressing products.
🆕 Weirs	Weirs features represent low dams built across a river or stream that either control the flow of water or change its direction. Please note that to avoid duplication, weirs with a UPRN in the NAG won't appear in OS ESG data; however, they will still be shown in OS Addressing products.

Note

Please note, the content of this table is subject to change with future releases of the product.

The new Slipways and Weirs datasets and the third-party bridge information updates to the Bridge Interactions dataset won't be available in the OS ESG until the April 2026 release of the product. They are included in the table above to give you early insight into upcoming changes to the product.

See the Planned enhancements page for details of upcoming OS ESG dataset releases over the next year.

🆕 Copyright and database right acknowledgement

The following copyright and database right acknowledgement should be used for any third-party bridge information from the Canal & River Trust in the Bridge Interactions dataset:

© The Canal & River Trust copyright and database rights reserved [insert year]

The above copyright and database right acknowledgement should be in a prominent position in all copies of the above. The year to insert into your copyright statements is the year that you received the digital data or the date of publication for any paper or printed products.

The map image below shows areas in England and Wales where attribution in the Bridge Interactions dataset was provided by the Canal & River Trust:

Map image showing the third-party organisations that contributed to the Third-Party Bridge Information data found within the Bridge Interactions dataset of the OS ESG.

Index

This overview includes the following sections:

• Product supply

• Planned enhancements

Useful resources

• A helpful introductory Lightning Talk on the OS ESG is available on our 'More than Maps' site (a self-serve site that provides a one-stop shop for all your OS technical geospatial support, including tutorials and demonstrators).