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GeoPlace Frequently Asked Questions
Why was GeoPlace LLP created?
Background - Government initiative for single address database
The Local Government Association and Ordnance Survey have formed a joint venture for the ongoing maintenance of a single definitive spatial address and street database. As part of the arrangements, the joint venture, known as GeoPlace LLP has worked together in partnership to create and maintain one single definitive spatial address base for Great Britain (England and Wales released in September 2011 (Local Authority data for Scotland expected to be included early 2012).
The initiative supports the Location Strategy's concept of a 'Core Reference Geography' and the key principles of the INSPIRE directive, including that data should only be collected once and kept where it can be maintained most effectively. It follows significant feedback from the market, including strong support for a single definitive address gazetteer at customer level.
GeoPlace will:
- replace the need for two separate public bodies to produce two similar products, leading to direct public cost savings arising from the de-duplication of work;
- create and maintain the single address database and pass the data to Ordnance Survey who will provide a range of spatial address products that meets the needs of Government – central and local; emergency services and health.
- Maximise the experience and knowledge of its staff who have worked alongside local authority custodians for many years
This will lead to:
- the more efficient transfer of address data within Government. This will, in turn, lead to improved decision-making and delivery of public services; and
- the provision through Ordnance Survey to the private sector of a single source of spatial address information.
Why produce a single address gazetteer database?
There has been a strong customer demand for a single definitive addressing solution supported by a wide range of authoritative bodies – including the Treasury Select Committee, the Power of Information Task Force, the Advisory Panel for Public Sector Information, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS), the UK Statistics Authority and others.
The joint venture proposition follows significant support for a single gazetteer as evidenced through Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) Ordnance Survey consultation. 43% of respondents to the consultation provided comments on the questions relating to a definitive national register (189 responses). A large proportion of these were supportive of the proposal to create a definitive single address register and stated that a single address register was vital.
These were supported by the conclusions reached by the Office of Fair Trading who concluded in February 2011 that “virtually all third parties supported the creation of a single national addressing database as such in view of the resulting benefits.”
Who will be running / responsible for the new joint venture?
Ordnance Survey and the Local Government Association, through a 50:50 partnership, own GeoPlace as a joint venture limited liability partnership (LLP).
What is the role of GeoPlace?
GeoPlace brings together local government's address and streets gazetteers with information from Ordnance Survey's OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 product into a central spatial address data hub. This data is updated by GeoPlace based upon the receipt of COU files (Change Only Updates) to LLPG’s (Local Land and Property Gazetteers) from 348 creating local authorities and updates to LSG’s (Local Street Gazetteers) from 174 creating local Highway Authorities.
On receipt of these updates they are checked record by record to ensure that they have been produced in accordance with the Data Entry Conventions (DEC) and that they are in compliance with the national standard for the representation of address information - BS 7666 Parts 1 and 2.
GeoPlace on receiving data from each defined source will;
- Validate the incoming data ensuring each submission meets the quality levels and stringent tests via a series of 126 Health Checks, with further checks on logical data consistency and from synchronisations and classification mismatches between the original address products Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) and the Valuation Office Agency’s Council Tax and Non Domestic Rates data
- Report on performance and data quality- providing metrics on the single address database
- Provide central governance- a crucial role in ensuring the database is managed responsibly on behalf of contributors and end users via the AddressBase product
GeoPlace will alongside Ordnance Survey enablement develop the database and products by;
- capturing and exploring user requirements
- provide expertise in database and geographic data management
- promote the single address database
Once the records are received from local authorities.
What are the roles of Local Authorities & Ordnance Survey in the creation and production of the new products?
Local Authorities role:
Vital to the success of GeoPlace and the creation and maintenance of the single address database is working closely with the Street Naming and Numbering Local Authorities. Change information received from Street Naming and Numbering feeds into the creation and maintenance of the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG). In turn they provide frequent (either daily, weekly or monthly) updates to the central hub operated by GeoPlace of new addresses and streets and review potential changes supplied to them by the hub that have come from the Valuation Office Agency, Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and other 3rd parties.
- Local Authorities have a statutory duty to provide Street Naming and Numbering (SNN) information. This duty requires that all streets are named and properties numbered, in accordance with the SNN Authority’s approved policy. The SNN Authority can approve or reject property numbers and Street names which are submitted by developers or owners.
A Street Naming and Numbering Officer is appointed to manage this process. The Address Change Intelligence (ACI) that they compile in their role feeds into the creation and maintenance process of a Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG) that contains addressing information for their administrative area.
LLPG’s are managed by an LLPG custodian who creates and maintains address records at a local level to an agreed methodology defined by GeoPlace. Their LLPG is then passed to the hub (managed by GeoPlace) which tests its structural conformance to the agreed implementation based on BS7666 (2006) Parts 1 & 2.
Ordnance Survey role:
Ordnance Survey (OS) will provide data sourced from OS MasterMap® Address Layer 2. This will include OS MasterMap Topographical Identifiers (TOID®) for the address, building and Integrated Transport Network (ITN) Layer features together with a range of addresses for Non-Postal addresses and their classifications (descriptions) - OWPA’s – Objects without a Postal Address.
Data Quality measures will be undertaken by ground verification audits. Data audits include checking the positional accuracy of addresses, using OS MasterMap large scale mapping as the reference dataset.
Derived from the single address database in agreement with GeoPlace Ordnance Survey is responsible for setting the AddressBase products specifications; managing the marketing and distribution of the products both directly and through its partners.