AddressBase products – September 2024 release note

This release note provides information about the September 2024 (Epoch 113) release of AddressBase products.

AddressBase products – August 2024 release note

This release note provides information about the August 2024 (Epoch 112) release of AddressBase products.

AddressBase products – June 2024 release note

This release note provides information about the June 2024 (Epoch 111) release of AddressBase products.

AddressBase products – May 2024 release note

This release note provides information about the May 2024 (Epoch 110) release of AddressBase products.

AddressBase products – April 2024 release note

This release note provides information about the April 2024 (Epoch 109) release of AddressBase products.

The following AddressBase core principles pages provide an overview of the 'family' of AddressBase products. They cover core elements of design for AddressBase products, including data formats, coordinate reference systems, currency, precision, and data sources, amongst other topics.

These pages should be used in conjunction with the detailed technical specifications found under the top-level product guide page for each individual product.

Record Counts

Product Supply Comparison

There is a difference in product counts between taking a national Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS) and a national Area of Interest (AOI). This is because the two supplies use different selection criteria. The differences are shown in the following table, allowing for you to validate your data holdings once you have loaded the latest release of AddressBase data.

The national AOI refers to the pre-selection GB polygon from our download store. Therefore, if you have drawn your own AOI, the count will vary.

If you are unsure of your supply type, please check this with your OS Relationship Manager.

Changed Records

If you receive a Change-Only Update (COU) supply for your AddressBase product, you will receive Insert, Update and Delete records within the supplied file. The following tables detail the numbers of these records which can be expected in an MGBS supply,and also how many tiles are affected if you take your supply as Changed Chunks.

AddressBase

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Premium

Source Data Currency

The following information relates to the currency of the source data used in the creation of Epoch 112:

Data Issues

AddressBase Plus Issues

Affected output formats: CSV and GML

• There are 5 675 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) which reference a Parent UPRN which cannot be found in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is either provisional or historic and is not matched to the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) or Valuation Office Agency (VOA) record, meaning that it is not included in the AddressBase Plus product as per the existing background logic rules.

• There are 220 records with a sao_start_no or sao_text that have no Parent UPRN in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is a historical record which is included as part of the logic for record inclusion in the AddressBase Plus product.

Improvements in Epoch 112

Valuation Office Agency Matching

The match rates for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates for Epoch 112 are detailed as follows based on Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records up to 8th July 2024. The match rate is applicable to the AddressBase Premium product.

Tertiary Classifications

Work is being undertaken to improve the classifications of records within the AddressBase products. This work has resulted in 48 610 more tertiary classifications present in Epoch 112 compared to Epoch 111. Indeed, 88.72% of these tertiary classification improvements are against residential codes.

PAF Matching

The following graph shows the number of Postcode Address File (PAF) matched records in AddressBase by epoch:

Next Release

The next release of AddressBase products, Epoch 113, is scheduled for 26th September 2024.

1. These counts are based on a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). If you have ordered your national coverage via the online ordering system using a polygon outline, then your counts may differ.

2. Change-Only Updates are not available for the OS Open UPRN product.

Record counts

Product supply comparison

There is a difference in product counts between taking a national Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS) and a national Area of Interest (AOI). This is because the two supplies use different selection criteria. The differences are shown in the following table, allowing for you to validate your data holdings once you have loaded the latest release of AddressBase data.

The national AOI refers to the pre-selection GB polygon from our download store. Therefore, if you have drawn your own AOI, the count will vary.

If you are unsure of your supply type, please check this with your OS Relationship Manager.

Changed records

If you receive a Change-Only Update (COU) supply for your AddressBase product, you will receive Insert, Update and Delete records within the supplied file. The following tables detail the numbers of these records which can be expected in an MGBS supply,and also how many tiles are affected if you take your supply as Changed Chunks.

AddressBase

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Premium

Source data currency

The following information relates to the currency of the source data used in the creation of Epoch 113:

Data issues

AddressBase Plus issues

Affected output formats: CSV and GML

• There are 6 504 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) which reference a Parent UPRN that cannot be found in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is either provisional or historic and is not matched to the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) or Valuation Office Agency (VOA) record, meaning that it is not included in the AddressBase Plus product as per the existing background logic rules.

• There are 227 records with a sao_start_no or sao_text that have no Parent UPRN in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is a historical record which is included as part of the logic for record inclusion in the AddressBase Plus products.

Improvements in Epoch 113

Valuation Office Agency matching

The match rates for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates for Epoch 113 are detailed as follows based on Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records up to 19 August 2024. The match rate is applicable to the AddressBase Premium product.

Tertiary classifications

Work is being undertaken to improve the classifications of records within the AddressBase products. This work has resulted in 37 159 more tertiary classifications present in Epoch 113 compared to Epoch 112. Indeed, 88.71% of these tertiary classification improvements are against residential codes.

PAF matching

The following graph shows the number of Postcode Address File (PAF) matched records in AddressBase by epoch:

Next release

The next release of AddressBase products, Epoch 114, is scheduled for 07 November 2024.

1. These counts are based on a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). If you have ordered your national coverage via the online ordering system using a polygon outline, then your counts may differ.

2. Change-Only Updates are not available for the OS Open UPRN product.

This code list is used in association with the attribute addressbasePostalCode/ADDRESSBASE_POSTAL_CODE found on the BLPU table. The code list describes the record as postal or not as defined by Addressbase logic.

AddressBase, AddressBase Plus, AddressBase Premium and AddressBase Islands are updated every six weeks. This six week period of time is known as an epoch.​

Our AddressBase products are currently available as a full supply or Change-Only Update (COU) for each epoch.​

Future dates are provided as an indication only and are subject to change. Data cut dates are estimates; these are given to provide an indication of the last point at which changes will reach the epoch. ​

The AddressBase product family is made up of four products:

AddressBase products are created by bringing together different address sources:

• Local Authority Gazetteers for England, Wales and Scotland

• Royal Mail PAF data

• References to Valuation Office Agency (VOA) data

• Additional addresses and coordinates from Ordnance Survey

This information is managed by under a joint venture partnership between Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey (OS). Scottish Local Authority address information is supplied to GeoPlace under licence between Ordnance Survey and the Improvement Service supported by the Scottish Government.

Ordnance Survey is responsible for customer management, sales, marketing and distribution of the AddressBase products.

Comparison of AddressBase products

This comparison table highlights the similarities and differences between the AddressBase products

Product summaries

The four AddressBase products have been designed to meet distinct customer requirements. The source data is collated, verified and quality assured by GeoPlace.

AddressBase Premium

AddressBase Premium provides the most detailed view of an address and its life cycle for England, Wales and Scotland. It has approximately 40 million addresses as it records an address from creation through to retirement. All address records are provided with a Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN).

There are over 100 million cross-references which include references to VOA data and products such as OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS Highways Layer are also included.

The product contains Local Authority, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail addresses. This includes alternative addresses for current records where available, indicating variations on the official addresses and/or addresses in different languages (Welsh or Gaelic); as well as including provisional addresses (proposed planning developments), and historic information (demolished properties) where available. Other addresses known as Objects Without a Postal Address (OWPAs) are also included in AddressBase Premium, these include places of worship, community centres and utilities.

AddressBase Core

AddressBase Core is a new addition to the addressing portfolio, which was released in July 2020.

AddressBase Core takes many of the important elements from the other AddressBase products, such as coordinates, classification and cross-references to connect address information to other products via key identifiers.

AddressBase Core's primary source of addressing information is Local Authority data from the National Land and Property Gazetteer (NLPG) and One Scotland Gazetteer (OSG). They have the legal responsibility to capture and maintain address data for Great Britain, so you are assured of its authenticity and legal nature.

Address information is provided in an easy-to-use format alongside a single line attribute which concatenates all the address elements into what you would expect to see on an envelope. It is updated weekly and is offered in an easier to digest format to make the product as easy to access and use as possible.

Customers have asked for easy file formats, so CSV and GeoPackage are available for this product, with headers included – removing the need for any post-processing. Simply load, or drag and drop into a GIS package to start analysing.

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Plus contains current properties using addresses sourced from Local Authorities, Ordnance Survey and Royal Mail for England, Wales and Scotland. The product currently contains approximately 37 million records.

The product contains all current addresses validated from Local Custodians and non-postal addresses such as ponds, electricity sub-stations and telephone boxes are also included.

The product enables the end-user to locate an address or property on a map using either X, Y coordinates supplied on a British National Grid or Latitude and Longitude coordinates provided on an ETRS89 projection, and display the Local Authority address elements or the Royal Mail address elements where matched.

AddressBase

This product will provide you with a single view of an address, allow you to locate this address on a map to give you a geographic view and carry out primary analysis on the function of the address to determine, for example, residential from commercial properties.

Record Counts

Product Supply Comparison

There is a difference in product counts between taking a national Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS) and a national Area of Interest (AOI). This is because the two supplies use different selection criteria. The differences are shown in the following table, allowing for you to validate your data holdings once you have loaded the latest release of AddressBase data.

The national AOI refers to the pre-selection GB polygon from our download store. Therefore, if you have drawn your own AOI, the count will vary.

If you are unsure of your supply type, please check this with your OS Relationship Manager.

Changed Records

If you receive a Change-Only Update (COU) supply for your AddressBase product, you will receive Insert, Update and Delete records within the supplied file. The following tables detail the numbers of these records which can be expected in an MGBS supply,and also how many tiles are affected if you take your supply as Changed Chunks.

AddressBase

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Premium

Source Data Currency

The following information relates to the currency of the source data used in the creation of Epoch 109:

Data Issues

AddressBase Plus Issues

Affected output formats: CSV and GML

• There are 5 021 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) which reference a Parent UPRN which cannot be found in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is either provisional or historic and is not matched to the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) or Valuation Office Agency (VOA) record, meaning that it is not included in the AddressBase Plus product as per the existing background logic rules.

• There are 254 records with a sao_start_no or sao_text that have no Parent UPRN in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is a historical record which is included as part of the logic for record inclusion in the AddressBase Plus product.

Improvements in Epoch 109

Valuation Office Agency Matching

The match rates for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates for Epoch 109 are detailed as follows based on Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records up to 26 February 2024. The match rate is applicable to the AddressBase Premium product.

Tertiary Classifications

Work is being undertaken to improve the classifications of records within the AddressBase products. This work has resulted in 47 161 more tertiary classifications present in Epoch 109 compared to Epoch 108. Indeed, 88.77% of these tertiary classification improvements are against residential codes.

PAF Matching

The following graph shows the number of Postcode Address File (PAF) matched records in AddressBase by epoch:

Notification of Epoch 109’s Improvement in Historic BLPU State Code Completeness and Large Release Size

Summary

This release includes an enhancement in the clarity and consistency of life cycle representation within product.

A conformance improvement has been delivered for BLPU State attribute for records where the BLPU Logical Status was 8 (historic) and BLPU State was null, for increased completeness BLPU State Code has been populated with value 4 (no longer existing) and date stamped for the change applied.

Issue description

The BLPU state identifies the current life cycle stage of a property (or object) and is additional to the mandatory LOGICAL_ STATUS field.

The BLPU code is an optional attribute for Local Authority Custodians to complete and therefore this attribute may be NULL in product.

An improvement to the completeness of the BLPU State Code was identified as a quality enhancement for life cycle information as values for BLPU state code 4 can be accurately inferred from a Logical Status of 8. This enhancement allows the data to be interpreted more easily by removing conflict between addresses with a historic logical status and no BLPU state.

All nations within GB and the Islands product regions will benefit from this improvement, as such it impacts approximately 1.2 million records for a full supply.

Impact

This quality improvement means a larger than usual supply of COUs.

Next Release

The next release of AddressBase products, Epoch 110, is scheduled for 16th May 2024.

1. These counts are based on a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). If you have ordered your national coverage via the online ordering system using a polygon outline, then your counts may differ.

2. Change-Only Updates are not available for the OS Open UPRN product.

The AddressBase classification scheme provides varying levels of classification for addressable objects which are captured and maintained by the Local Authorities and Ordnance Survey. This allows searches to be limited on residential or commercial addresses or be more specific to find all the flats or all fast-food outlets. The varying levels of classification are as follows:

• Primary Level Classification R: Residential C: Commercial

  • Secondary Level Classification RD: Residential Dwelling CH: Hotel/Motel/ Boarding/ Guest House

    • Tertiary Level Classification RD02: Detached House CH01: Boarding/Guest House/ Bed And Breakfast/Youth Hostel

      • Quaternary Level CH01YH: Youth Hostel

There are only certain classification codes that extend to the quaternary classification level as shown above. A full list of the classification codes can be found on our page.

Record Counts

Product Supply Comparison

There is a difference in product counts between taking a national Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS) and a national Area of Interest (AOI). This is because the two supplies use different selection criteria. The differences are shown in the following table, allowing for you to validate your data holdings once you have loaded the latest release of AddressBase data.

The national AOI refers to the pre-selection GB polygon from our download store. Therefore, if you have drawn your own AOI, the count will vary.

If you are unsure of your supply type, please check this with your OS Relationship Manager.

Changed Records

If you receive a Change-Only Update (COU) supply for your AddressBase product, you will receive Insert, Update and Delete records within the supplied file. The following tables detail the numbers of these records which can be expected in an MGBS supply,and also how many tiles are affected if you take your supply as Changed Chunks.

AddressBase

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Premium

Source Data Currency

The following information relates to the currency of the source data used in the creation of Epoch 111:

Data Issues

AddressBase Plus Issues

Affected output formats: CSV and GML

• There are 6 189 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) which reference a Parent UPRN which cannot be found in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is either provisional or historic and is not matched to the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) or Valuation Office Agency (VOA) record, meaning that it is not included in the AddressBase Plus product as per the existing background logic rules.

• There are 254 records with a sao_start_no or sao_text that have no Parent UPRN in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is a historical record which is included as part of the logic for record inclusion in the AddressBase Plus product.

Improvements in Epoch 111

Valuation Office Agency Matching

The match rates for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates for Epoch 111 are detailed as follows based on Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records up to 20th May 2024. The match rate is applicable to the AddressBase Premium product.

Tertiary Classifications

Work is being undertaken to improve the classifications of records within the AddressBase products. This work has resulted in 40 932 more tertiary classifications present in Epoch 111 compared to Epoch 110. Indeed, 88.74% of these tertiary classification improvements are against residential codes.

PAF Matching

The following graph shows the number of Postcode Address File (PAF) matched records in AddressBase by epoch:

Next Release

The next release of AddressBase products, Epoch 112, is scheduled for 15th August 2024.

1. These counts are based on a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). If you have ordered your national coverage via the online ordering system using a polygon outline, then your counts may differ.

2. Change-Only Updates are not available for the OS Open UPRN product.

A critical step in the creation of an address is undertaken within each Local Authority by the dedicated Street Name and Numbering (SNN) custodian and the Scottish Local Street Gazetteer (LSG) custodians, who allocates the official street name and building information.

The SNN/LSG custodian has a statutory obligation to provide SNN/LSG information for all addresses within their administrative area. Once the SNN/LSG custodian has fulfilled their statutory obligation for initial capture, the LLPG/OSG custodian will maintain the address for the life of the address record.

The official street name and building information for new properties captured by the SNN/LSG custodians is provided to Royal Mail who then allocate a postcode to the address.

The Unique Property Reference Number (UPRN) is the persistent identifier providing consistency across the AddressBase products range.

Each address record has a UPRN, which provides a reference key to join related address records across different datasets.

Throughout its life cycle, information on the address of a property can change. This may be due to a change of name, change of use, or the eventual demolition of the property. All these changes are reflected against the same UPRN meaning that users are aware that it is the same physical property.

AddressBase products has two coordinate reference systems (CRS) present within the data:

1. British National Grid (BNG)

2. European Terrestrial Reference System 89 (ETRS89)

BNG uses the OSGB36 geodetic datum and a single Transverse Mercator projection for the whole of Great Britain. Positions on this projection are described using Easting and Northing coordinates in units of metres. The BNG is a horizontal spatial reference system only; it does not specify a vertical (height) reference system.

ETRS89 is the EU-recommended frame of reference for European data and is represented as Latitude and Longitude values. ETRS89 is a horizontal spatial reference system only; it does not specify a vertical (height) reference system.

View our guide to coordinate systems in Great Britain.

Currency

Updates are continuously made to the central spatial address data hub, which is managed by GeoPlace. These are used to produce the AddressBase Core product, which is supplied on a weekly basis. An extract is taken for the creation of AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium on a 6-weekly basis.

Completeness

Quality control procedures are undertaken at all stages of production to ensure that the data is as accurate and complete as possible and conforms to the specification. These quality control checks include automated data testing against the product specification and visual checks by operators.

Precision

Coordinates for all addressable objects with each AddressBase product are published with geometry given to a precision of up to 2 decimal places for British National Grid coordinates, and up to 7 decimal places for ETRS89 coordinates.

A code list is a controlled set of allowable labels or codes represented as an alphanumeric attribute. The pages in this section show the code lists used within the OS Emergency Services Gazetteer (ESG). Some of the code lists apply to attributes of multiple feature types, whereas others will only apply to attributes of one feature type.

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.

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.

Welcome to the OS Download Products' documentation platform!

This is a self-serve portal containing documentation and guides relating to OS Premium and OpenData Download products available to download through the OS Data Hub. It is one of several key platforms that support OS data and services, including:

Ordnance Survey provides two types of Download data product – OS Premium and OS OpenData.

What are OS Premium Download data products?

When we refer to Premium products we mean paid-for datasets – whether they’re paid for by businesses, purchased through an OS Partner, or accessed free at the point of use under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSGA).

The OS Premium Download data products are available to download in a range of formats, with a variety of ordering options, through the OS Data Hub on our Premium, Public Sector and Energy and Infrastructure plans.

Our Premium Download data products work in a range of software, including ESRI ArcGIS, QGIS, Mapbox, Cadcorp SIS, MapInfo, Tableau, Kepler.gl and many more.

What are OS OpenData Download products?

OS OpenData Download products are free to use by anyone for any purpose – including for services from which you make a profit.

The OS OpenData Download products are available to download in a variety of formats, with a variety of ordering options, through the OS Data Hub.

What's new?

Download product portfolios

Record Counts

Product Supply Comparison

There is a difference in product counts between taking a national Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS) and a national Area of Interest (AOI). This is because the two supplies use different selection criteria. The differences are shown in the following table, allowing for you to validate your data holdings once you have loaded the latest release of AddressBase data.

The national AOI refers to the pre-selection GB polygon from our download store. Therefore, if you have drawn your own AOI, the count will vary.

If you are unsure of your supply type, please check this with your OS Relationship Manager.

Changed Records

If you receive a Change-Only Update (COU) supply for your AddressBase product, you will receive Insert, Update and Delete records within the supplied file. The following tables detail the numbers of these records which can be expected in an MGBS supply,and also how many tiles are affected if you take your supply as Changed Chunks.

AddressBase

AddressBase Plus

AddressBase Premium

Source Data Currency

The following information relates to the currency of the source data used in the creation of Epoch 110:

Data Issues

AddressBase Plus Issues

Affected output formats: CSV and GML

• There are 5 420 Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) which reference a Parent UPRN which cannot be found in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is either provisional or historic and is not matched to the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF) or Valuation Office Agency (VOA) record, meaning that it is not included in the AddressBase Plus product as per the existing background logic rules.

• There are 240 records with a sao_start_no or sao_text that have no Parent UPRN in the product. This is because the Parent UPRN is a historical record which is included as part of the logic for record inclusion in the AddressBase Plus product.

Improvements in Epoch 110

Valuation Office Agency Matching

The match rates for Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rates for Epoch 110 are detailed as follows based on Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records up to 08 April 2024. The match rate is applicable to the AddressBase Premium product.

Tertiary Classifications

Work is being undertaken to improve the classifications of records within the AddressBase products. This work has resulted in 38 568 more tertiary classifications present in Epoch 110 compared to Epoch 109. Indeed, 88.75% of these tertiary classification improvements are against residential codes.

PAF Matching

The following graph shows the number of Postcode Address File (PAF) matched records in AddressBase by epoch:

Next Release

The next release of AddressBase products, Epoch 111, is scheduled for 27th June 2024.

1. These counts are based on a Managed Great Britain Set (MGBS). If you have ordered your national coverage via the online ordering system using a polygon outline, then your counts may differ.

2. Change-Only Updates are not available for the OS Open UPRN product.

This enumeration is used in association with the stateCode/STATE_CODE attribute. This enumeration describes the physical nature of the address record.

This enumeration is used in association with the attribute ChangeType/CHANGE_TYPE. This enumeration identifies the type of change that has been made to a feature.

This code list is used in association with the attribute country/COUNTRY found on the BLPU table. The code list describes within which country the address feature falls within.

This enumeration is used in association with the attribute blpuState/BLPU_STATE. This enumeration describes the physical nature of the address record.

Supply format

All four of the AddressBase products are available as Comma-Separated Value (CSV) files. AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium are also available as Geography Markup Language (GML). AddressBase Core is also available as a GeoPackage.

Comma-Separated Values (CSV)

Comma-separated value (CSV) files are a delimited text file that use commas or other characters to separate individual elements of a feature. It is used to store data, often in the form of a table. These tables can be freely loaded into databases and programs allowing for the easy loading and updating of data holdings.

The supply of AddressBase products in the CSV format means:

• There will be one record per line in each file.

• Fields will be separated by commas.

• Character strings will be encapsulated with double quotation marks.

• No comma will be placed at the end of each row in the file.

• Records will be terminated by Carriage Return/Line Feed.

For AddressBase Core the first line of the CSV file will be the Header row. Other AddressBase products have a separate Header file that is available on the product support page and can be combined with the data to give a structure tabular view. Instructions to do this are provided in the relevant Getting Started Guides on the Product Support pages.

Geography Markup Language (GML) version 3.2

The Geography Markup Language (GML) Encoding standard is an Extensible Markup Language (XML) grammar for expressing geographical features. XML schemas are used to define and validate the format and content of GML. The XML specifications that GML is based on are available from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) website: More information can be found in the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) document, Geography Markup Language v3.2.1.

The GML 3.2 specification provides a set of schemas that define the GML feature constructs and geometric types. These are designed to be used as a basis for building application-specific schemas, which define the data content.

More information on the XML schemas can be found in the product technical specification.

GeoPackage

GeoPackage (GPKG) is an open, standards-based data format as defined by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC). It is designed to be a lightweight format that can contain large amounts of varied and complex data in a single, easy-to-distribute and ready-to-use file. Please be advised that older versions of GIS software may need updating before being able to display and interact with GeoPackage files.

GeoPackage offers the following benefits:

• The single file is easy to transfer and offers the end-user a rich experience.

• Attribute names are not limited in length making it user-friendly.

• No file size limit so lots of data can be easily accommodated.

• Supports raster, vector and database formats making it a highly versatile solution.

• It is an OGC Standard.

• In most cases, it is a Plug and Play format.

Supply media and file structure

AddressBase products incorporate a web-based ordering system that allows customers to order initial data supply and updates, obtain price estimates and view details of their data holdings on demand.

AddressBase Core is provided as a single file which will contain all records regardless of format and supply option: full supply or COU.

The AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium products have been split into chunks of smaller data. The primary supply mechanism is referred to as non-geographic chunks. This is the main mechanism for the delivery of data.

Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) customers are able to order all AddressBase products via geographic chunks (5km tiles). Address records are provided in individual files, which represent each 5km tile ordered.

Non-geographic chunking

Non-geographic chunking is a way of dividing up data into chunks that are supplied in separate volumes that have a fixed maximum number of records, as opposed to a given geographic National Grid area. For this reason, it is possible for features from various geographic locations to appear in one volume and for adjacent features to appear in different volumes.

Non-geographic chunk volumes are designed to be loaded into spatial databases, but can be used in a file format as long as all chunks are translated or imported into the system at the same time.

CSV files can supply a maximum of one million complete address records within one volume, when this limit is reached, a new volume will be started.

For the GML supply a maximum of 200 000 features will be provided in one volume before the next one is started.

Geographic chunking

For data that is supplied in 5km-by-5km chunks, the file name will reference the 1km tile in the south-west corner of the 5km tile.

Based on your area of interest (AOI), for example the boundary of your local authority, a 5km-by-5km grid covering the area of interest is generated.

All features within each 5km grid that intersects the AOI are added to a geographic chunk file. Geographic chunking is performed using the standard Ordnance Survey National Grid.

Coverage

AddressBase products provide address data for England, Wales and Scotland.

National sets

A national set of AddressBase, known as a Managed GB Set (MGBS) service is a way of processing identical orders faster, which improves delivery times. All records within England, Wales and Scotland will be provided. If you are signed up to an MGBS service you will benefit from:

• Data arriving faster and in a more predictable manner.

• Seeing the same version of features as other organisations.

• Easier data management – no need to manage your order beyond signing up.

For PSGA customers, MGBS will be supplied as geographic or non-geographic chunks. For non-PSGA users, MGBS will be supplied as non-geographic chunks.

Customer defined areas of interest

Customers may provide their own area of interest (AOI) in any standard GIS format.

You can supply us with a polygon or you can digitise a polygon within our online ordering service.

Product updates

Customers are able to take a full supply for all AddressBase products. An easier way to manage the addressing data which each product release is to take change-only updates (COU)

Full Supply

A Full Supply is a resupply of all addressable features in each product each time it is released. This may require you to delete to current holding and replace this with the newly supplied product on each product refresh.

AddressBase Core in GeoPackage format is only available as a Full Supply each week.

COU

Change-only update (COU) is a supply of features which have been created, changed or deleted in a customer’s area of interest since their last supply.

Any feature which has not undergone one of the above changes since a customer’s last supply will not be supplied as part of a COU.

COU will be supplied on a weekly basis for AddressBase Core CSV or a six-weekly basis for AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Premium.

A Geographic chunked COU is not supplied as per the Non-Geographic chunked COU outlined above. For a specified 5km tile, all features within the tile will be supplied should any of the individual features change.

This means the user will need to remove all features that previously existed in the provided tile(s) and insert the entire new tile(s) in its place.

This enumeration is used in association with the logicalStatus/LOGICAL_STATUS attribute found in the BLPU and LPI table. This enumeration provides a value to show the lifecycle stage of the address record.

This enumeration is used in association with the attribute fileType/FILE_TYPE found in the Header record. This enumeration allows the identification of either a change-only update (COU) supply or a full supply.

This enumeration is used in association with the officialFlag/OFFICIAL_FLAG attribute. This enumeration is an indicator of whether an address record corresponds to an entry in the official Street Name and Numbering register.

This enumeration is used in association with the postcodeType/POSTCODE_TYPE attribute. This enumeration identifies the code used by Royal Mail to describe the user as a small or large user. This is defined for postal services based on the number of letters delivered to that user.

There are many Date columns within the AddressBase product. Where a type format of Date has been used in the above attribute tables, the data will be defined in the following format.

The AddressBase products provide a variety of data fields, allowing you to construct different forms of an address for a given addressable object, dependent on how the address is to be used.

AddressBase contains the Delivery Point Address which is sourced from Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) – a non-geocoded list of addresses. These addresses are used primarily as a ‘mailing list’ for postal purposes.

There are two types of address contained in the AddressBase Plus products:

• Delivery Point Address

• Geographic Address

These two address types come from different sources and are matched together by GeoPlace.

As noted above, the Delivery Point Address is sourced from Royal Mail’s PAF data. Geographic Addresses are maintained by contributing Local Authorities. The structure of a Geographic Address is based on the British Standard BS7666. These addresses are used to provide an accurate geographic locator for an object to support, for example, service delivery, asset management, or command and control operations. They also represent the legal form of addresses as created under street naming and numbering legislation.

Each UPRN in AddressBase Plus provides the Geographic Address and, where matched, the Delivery Point Address in a one-to-one relationship. If there is no match, then the following fields will be left empty:

Background

A common requirement for customers using the AddressBase products is to build a single address label from core address elements.

There are two types of address label. The simplest is a full address on a single line with different elements separated by commas and spaces. This type of label is suited for displaying a full address within a tabular display, such as within an on-screen data grid or spreadsheet, or where a single-line printed address is most appropriate (such as within the text, header or footer of a letter):

ROSE COTTAGE, 5 MAIN STREET, ADDRESSVILLE, LONDON, SE99 9EX

The other type of formatted address is a multi-line address label. These are most often used on envelopes or at the tops of letters, where different parts of an address are separated onto different lines:

This guide outlines a methodology for structuring and layering a single address label, providing suggested logic to build both the Delivery Point and Geographic Address. The logic in Delivery Point Address is applicable to AddressBase, AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Plus Islands. The logic in Geographic Address is only applicable to AddressBase Plus and AddressBase Plus Islands.

The rules in this guide are suggestions only and can be used for visual display of full addresses. It is strongly recommended that address components are stored in the format in which they are provided in order to allow maximum flexibility of use and derived value.

Delivery Point Address (PAF Address)

A Delivery Point Address contains information sourced from Royal Mail (PAF). Stringent rules are used to match these addresses to the Geographic Address and assign a common UPRN to link addresses from the two addressing sources together in the data model.

To construct a single address label based purely on the Royal Mail PAF address fields, the following attributes can be used to build a Delivery Point Address label.

The table below provides details of the Delivery Point Address Components.

These address components are listed in the correct order in which they should appear on an address label. There may be a business need to replace the thoroughfare, locality and post_town attributes with the Welsh equivalent. The following examples use the English version of these attributes only.

It should be noted that most of the PAF fields are optional and may contain null values (or zero, in the cases of ‘BUILDING NUMBER’ and ‘PO BOX NUMBER’). In these cases, those fields should be omitted.

The following (entirely fictional) example shows all of the PAF fields filled in (apart from the PO Box number) and indicates how they should be ordered in a single address label.

In cases where a PO BOX NUMBER is present, it will only be described in the data as an integer. In order to properly format these addresses when generating an address label, these integers should be prefixed with the text ‘PO BOX’, as shown in the following example:

Where null or empty, string values exist (for character fields) or zeros or nulls (for integer fields), those fields should be entirely omitted from the output. However, the order in which the fields should be concatenated always remains the same.

Building a single-line Delivery Point Address

Building a single-line, formatted address for a Delivery Point is relatively straightforward. All the fields should be checked in the order shown previously in Table 1, and those that have values should be concatenated together into a single line. Generally, address components should be separated by a comma followed by a single space (‘, ’), although sometimes only a space is used between a building number and a thoroughfare name. You can use your preference.

An example of SQL logic to create a single-line Delivery Point Address is on our GitHub repository https://github.com/OrdnanceSurvey/AddressBase/tree/master/SQL, which should be used under the following considerations:

• The SQL operator for concatenating text is a double pipe (‘||’).

• CASE blocks have been used to test each of the fields for null values before concatenating its contents (along with a suitable separator – either ‘, ’ or ‘ ’).

• The field names and table names used are illustrative and may vary between databases.

• Depending on the database schema and data loading method used, it may be necessary to test some fields for empty strings (‘’) or zero values (for integer fields) instead of, or as well as, testing for NULLs.

• If you are using PostGres (PostGIS), it might be beneficial to substitute the ‘IS NOT NULL’ with != ‘’. This should improve the overall appearance of the output.

Building a multi-line Delivery Point Address

Splitting a Delivery Point Address into multiple lines is more complicated. There are several rules to consider in order to avoid having very short lines (for example, just a building number) or very long lines within the formatted address. A summary of these rules is as follows:

• Generally, if there is a building number, it should appear on the same line as the thoroughfare (or dependent thoroughfare) name. If there is no thoroughfare name information, it should appear on the same line as the first locality name.

• In cases where building numbers have been placed in the building name field due to the presence of a letter suffix (for example, ‘11A’) or a number range separator (for example, ‘3–5’), these should be detected and placed on the same line as the thoroughfare name in the same way as a building number (or on the first locality line if no thoroughfare name is present).

• In most other cases, the building name, if present, should appear on a separate line above the thoroughfare (or dependent thoroughfare) name. If there is no thoroughfare name present, it should appear on the same line as the first locality name.

• Similar tests should be applied to the SUB_BUILDING_NAME field: if this field contains a number, a number with a suffix, or a numeric range, it should precede the building name on the same line. In most other cases, it should appear on a separate line above the building name.

Geographic Address (Local Authority Address)

The structure of a Geographic Address is based on the British Standard BS7666 and is split into several components. This means that in order to construct a complete address label (for example, on an envelope, database form or GIS display), the components need to be constructed according to a set of rules.

Within the AddressBase Plus products, the core property level address information is stored within the Primary Addressable Object (PAO) and Secondary Addressable Object (SAO) fields. The additional attribution required to build a full address label are the la_organisation, street_description, locality, town_name, administrative_area and postcode_locator.

For a full description of PAOs and SAOs, and the complete set of AddressBase Plus fields, please refer to the Technical Specification on your respective product:

• AddressBase technical specification

• AddressBase Plus technical specification

• AddressBase Plus Islands technical specification

Constructing a single address label from the Geographic Address fields

To construct a single address label based purely on the BS7666 address fields, the following attributes should be used to build a Geographic Address label.

*ADMINISTRATIVE_AREA is optional because it is common for this field to be the same as the TOWN_NAME. Sometimes, however, this field will help users construct a more complete address.

These address components are listed in the correct order in which they should appear on an address label. There may be a business need to use alternate language fields for the SAO_TEXT, PAO_TEXT and STREET_DESCRIPTION, which are also listed in the correct order above.

Rendering SAOs and PAOs

When building a single address label, it may be necessary to concatenate the various SAO fields and PAO fields together respectively. These fields contain any property names, numbers, number ranges or suffixes that apply to an address.

A PAO number/range string should be constructed from the PAO_START_NUMBER, PAO_START_SUFFIX, PAO_ END_NUMBER and PAO_END_SUFFIX fields, as illustrated in the following table.

Similarly, a SAO number/range string should be constructed from the SAO_START_NUMBER, SAO_START_SUFFIX, SAO_END_NUMBER and SAO_END_SUFFIX fields, as illustrated in the following table.

In addition to the numeric range fields described above, there are also PAO_text and SAO_text fields. These fields may be populated instead of, or as well as, the numeric range fields. In both cases, if both text and a numeric range string are present, the text should appear before the numeric range in any formatted address.

Street description, town, locality and administrative area names

The street description and administrative area names are always present, while the locality name and town name may be empty.

The ADMINISTRATIVE_AREA field always contains a value; however, this value will not always enhance an address, but in some cases it will. In particular, check that it is not the same as the value in the TOWN_NAME field, as this is often the case.

In other cases, the administrative area name will simply contain the local authority name, which would not traditionally form part of a single or multi-line address but can be included to add additional information to an address label. Its inclusion is largely down to business requirements or personal preference; however, it may also be useful to 'de-duplicate' some Geographic Addresses.

The following (entirely fictional) example shows all of the BS7666 Geographic Address fields filled in and how they should be ordered in a single address label.

*The number/range strings are built from the relevant PAO/SAO START_NUMBER, START_SUFFIX, END_NUMBER and END_SUFFIX fields, as described above, and formatted as character strings.

Where an administrative area matches the town name, it should always be omitted.

Where null or empty string values exist (for character fields) or zeros or nulls (for integer fields), those fields should be entirely omitted from the output; however, the order in which the fields should be concatenated always remains the same.

Building a single-line Geographic Address

Building a single-line, formatted address for a Geographic Address is slightly more complicated than for a Delivery Point Address due to the need to preformat the SAO and PAO number/range strings. However, once this is done, the process is largely the same as before: the calculated fields should be checked in the order shown previously in Constructing a single address label from the Geographic Address fields, and those that have values should be concatenated together into a single line. Generally, address components should be separated by a comma followed by a single space (‘, ’), although sometimes only a space is used between a PAO number/range string and a street description. This is down to personal preference.

Example SQL logic to create a single-line Geographic Address can be found on our GitHub repository, which should be used under the following considerations:

• The SQL operator for concatenating text is a double pipe (‘||’).

• CASE blocks have been used to test each of the fields for null values before concatenating its contents (along with a suitable separator – either ‘, ’ or ‘ ’).

• The field names and table names used are illustrative and may vary between databases.

• Depending on the database schema and data loading method used, it may be necessary to test some fields for empty strings (‘’) or zero values (for integer fields) instead of or as well as testing for NULLs.

Building a multi-line Geographic Address

Splitting a Geographic Address into multiple lines is more complex. As with Delivery Point Addresses, there are several rules to consider in order to avoid having very short lines (for example, just a building number) or very long lines within the formatted address.

A summary of these rules is as follows:

1. Generally, if there is a PAO number/range string, it should appear on the same line as the Street Description. For example: 11A MAIN STREET

2. If there is a PAO_text value, it should always appear on the line above the Street Name (or on the line above the <PAO number string> + <Street Name> where there is a PAO number/range).
3. If there is a SAO_text value, it should appear on a separate line above the PAO_text line (or the PAO number/range + Street Name where there is no PAO_text value).
4. If there is a SAO number/range value, it should be inserted either on the same line as the PAO_text (if there is a PAO_text value), or on the same line as the PAO number/range + Street Name (if there is only a PAO number/range value and no PAO_text value). If there are both PAO_text and a PAO number/range, then the SAO number/range should appear on the same line as the PAO_text, and the PAO number/range should appear on the street line.
5. If there is a SAO_text value, it should always appear on its own line.
6. If there is an Organisation Name, it should always appear alone as the top line of the address.
7. The Locality (if present) should appear on a separate line beneath the Street Description, followed by the Town Name on the line below it. If there is no Locality, the Town Name should appear alone on the line beneath the Street Description.
8. If the Administrative Area name is required and it is not a duplicate of the Town Name, it can optionally be included on a separate line beneath the Town Name.
9. Finally, the Postcode Locator should be inserted on the final line of the address.

Creating mailing lists

Given that AddressBase Plus contains two different types of address, a decision needs to be made as to whether to use the Geographic or Delivery Point Addresses, or a mixture.

The following two options should be considered:

1. Use Delivery Point Addresses whenever they are available, and when they are not, use a Geographic Address.

2. Use Geographic Addresses in all cases.

Depending on business requirements, in some user interfaces it may be worth considering displaying both forms of an address where possible, since this will provide the maximum information available about a given UPRN.

‘Mixing and matching’ components from the two different forms of address into a single address label is not recommended as this is likely to cause confusion in some instances.

Other filters

AddressBase Plus offers other attributes that could be used in conjunction with address labels. For example, classification can be used to target certain types of property, or OS MasterMap Topography TOID cross references can be used to link address labels to Topographic objects and viewed in a GIS.

This enumeration is used in association with the recordType/RECORD_TYPE attribute found in the Street table. This enumeration identifies the record type of the street record.

This enumeration is used in association with the LANGUAGE attribute found in the Street Descriptor and LPI tables; and also the Metadata table for CSV supply. This enumeration identifies the language of the address displayed.

This enumeration is used in association with the streetClassification/STREET_CLASSIFICATION attribute found in the Street table. The enumeration provides a value denoting the primary classification of the street record.

This enumeration is used in association with the state/STATE attribute found in the street table. This enumeration identifies at which point the street record is within its lifecycle.

This enumeration is used in association with the rpc/RPC attribute. This enumeration identifies the accuracy value of the coordinates allocated to the address.