Using the National Statistics Postcode Lookup (NSPL) and ONS Postcode Directory

Release date:
25 January 2022

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3481

You asked

I would like get clarification about the licences under which your "National Statistics Postcode Lookup" (NSPL) and "ONS Postcode Directory" (ONSPD) as described at https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/geographicalproducts/postcodeproducts can be re-used. (I could make a formal request under the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations, but hopefully a simple clarification from you regarding the points below will be more expedient.)

If I've understood things correctly, the information on the Great Britain (non-BT) postcodes contained in the NSPL and ONSPD may be re-used under the Open Government Licence (OGL) v3, with the attribution statements listed under the "Postcode Products" section at https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/licences . I'd be grateful if you could you confirm that this is the case.

Could you also confirm (as per the exemptions section of the OGL) that there are no "third party rights the Information Provider is not authorised to license" contained in the non-BT NSPL and/or ONSPD data? I don't think that the "Postcode user type", "Date of introduction" and "Date of termination" fields are available in other OS/Geoplace Open Data products. So, could you explicitly confirm that you have the necessary permissions to allow these to be re-used under the OGL?

We said

Thank you for your request.

We can confirm this is correct. Here is the wording from the ONSPD/NSPL User Guide:

'You may re-use this information (not including logos or Northern Ireland data) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the relevant data owners' licence. In addition, the following attribution statements must be acknowledged or displayed whenever the owner's data is used:

  •        Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right [year]

  •        Contains Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right [year]

  •        Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0'

Also, the fields mentioned (user type, date of introduction and termination) are included in the OGL.

We hope this response sufficiently meets your needs, should you require any further clarification, please do not hesitate to get back in touch.

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