Owen Boswarva's blog

This is the latest in an interminable series of blog posts about the campaign for open address data in the UK. Previous posts are listed at the bottom.

In this post I explain why I have, earlier today, removed from the web a collection of more than seven million open address records released by UK local authorities over the past year and a half.

OS/GeoPlace claim of IP infringement

Regular readers will be aware that for some time I have been requesting Council Tax address datasets from UK local authorities, and asking for permission to re-use the data under the terms of the Open Government Licence.

There is a page on my Datadaptive site with information about the Council Tax datasets released as open data so far: datadaptive.com/addr/

So you can imagine my dismay when, late on Friday, I received this legal email from Ordnance Survey: 20260508 EMF OS Legal re Council Tax address datasets.pdf

OS is claiming that "except for Leeds City, Wigan and Bradford Councils, the address data published on datadaptive.com should be considered as containing the intellectual property of Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace and Royal Mail, and its continued publication constitutes infringement of our respective rights."

The email has been sent on behalf of both Ordnance Survey and GeoPlace LLP. Royal Mail has reportedly been briefed, but it is not clear whether the email has been sent with the approval of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).

The email follows from an earlier communication in January, in which OS/GeoPlace told me they were making inquiries with local authorities about my requests for Council Tax address data. At that time OS/GeoPlace did not make any specific claims of IP infringement.

OS/GeoPlace require that I take down all of the Council Tax address data published via my site, plus some other actions, with potential for legal japes in the future if I fail to comply:

"However, if you do not comply with the above requests, Ordnance Survey and GeoPlace will have no alternative but to consider our other options, which will include formal legal proceedings to protect our intellectual property rights."

Pause for breath

For the avoidance of doubt, this blog post is not a reply or response to OS's email.

Removal of open address datasets from 57 local authorities

With great reluctance, I have today removed from the web downloads containing Council Tax property lists released as open data by 57 local authorities: 53 in England (including 14 London boroughs), one in Wales, and three in Scotland.

The removed datasets contain more than seven million open address records in total. Information about those datasets remains at datadaptive.com/addr/.

At the time of writing, none of the relevant local authorities have informed me that permission for re-use under the Open Government Licence was granted by them in error.

The authorities include some that have engaged conspicuously with questions of IP ownership while handling my requests. Rushcliffe, for example, took legal advice following earlier representations from OS/GeoPlace and concluded that the address data disclosed to me contains IP rights which belong solely to the Council. Rushcliffe said:

"This is because the Council maintains an entirely separate list of addresses in the Council Tax database, which is not linked or otherwise related to the data contained in the Council's LLPG [Local Land and Property Gazetteer] and LSG [Local Streets Gazetteer]".

OS/GeoPlace have not offered any specific evidence of analysis in support of their claim of infringement.

Regardless, if you have previously downloaded any of the removed Council Tax datasets you should be aware that OS and GeoPlace LLP maintain that address data in those datasets contains the intellectual property rights of Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace and Royal Mail, and require that:

"to the extent that anyone has downloaded or otherwise used such data, they should note that it is subject to such third party intellectual property rights, and cannot be used without express consent from Ordnance Survey, GeoPlace and Royal Mail."

In some cases the same Council Tax datasets remain accessible elsewhere because they have been published by the local authorities themselves or because they were published by other parties prior to (and independently of) my own publication. I will be monitoring those public sources, where known, to assure myself that OS/GeoPlace are not enforcing their putative rights selectively.

It's a sad day. This wholesale removal of Council Tax datasets is the UK's biggest loss of access to open address data since 2017, when HM Land Registry changed the terms of re-use for Price Paid Data – released under the OGL in 2013 – to incorporate Royal Mail licensing.

Ordnance Survey versus local government: who is in the right?

GeoPlace LLP is a public body that oversees the production and maintenance of national address and street gazetteers in the UK. It is a joint venture between Ordnance Survey, the national mapping agency for Great Britain, and the Local Government Association's Improvement & Development Agency (IDeA).

Local authorities are the primary source of address data collected in the national gazetteer, but Ordnance Survey is very much the majority partner in GeoPlace.

It is a great shame then that, 15 years after the creation of GeoPlace, Ordnance Survey is still unable to reach a consensus with councils on the ownership of rights in locally managed address data.

DSIT, the UK Government department that sponsors Ordnance Survey, should be furious. Government is paying OS £1 billion over ten years – the agency's main source of revenue – to deliver the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), under which local authorities and other public bodies have access to premium geospatial data products including national address data.

It is apparent that OS and GeoPlace consider themselves to be experts on IP rights in address data, such that they are well placed to produce guidance to assist local authorities in understanding their legal obligations. Sometimes GeoPlace will even provide local authorities with bespoke wordings for their responses to FOI and re-use requests.

But if that is the case, why have nearly sixty local authorities infringed on third party rights by releasing their Council Tax address datasets as open data – according to OS/GeoPlace's interpretation?

I have only seen the allegation that OS/GeoPlace have made against me. But it follows that, if my publication of any of the disclosed datasets was an infringement of third-party rights, each of the relevant local authorities must have also infringed those rights by expressly permitting that publication and failing to tell me about the third-party IP.

As I think OS/GeoPlace are aware, every request I have submitted for re-use of information in a Council Tax property list has highlighted the potential for infringement of third-party rights:

"If any third party owns intellectual property rights in any of the above requested information which the Council is not authorised to license, please specify the relevant information and the name of the third party."

I assume that by now OS/GeoPlace will have notified each relevant local authority of their claim of infringement, and required them to take remedial action along similar lines to the requirements imposed on me. I imagine the third parties may also have recourse in contract under the PSGA member licence and/or the PAF public sector licence.

The trickier question is whether downstream re-users of the address data, who have relied in good faith on permission from local authorities, will be entitled to recover their costs from those local authorities if OS/GeoPlace pursue them for infringement. Any such legal action will potentially involve multiple parties and open up a can of worms for the relationship between OS/GeoPlace and local government under the PSGA.

This is not to say that I will join OS/GeoPlace in criticising local authorities for unlocking their Council Tax datasets. With regard to the datasets removed today, I have no evidence to substantiate any claim of infringement made by OS/GeoPlace. I remain grateful to all of the council staff who have worked to facilitate the disclosure and open licensing of their Council Tax property lists.

It would, of course, be preferrable for each local authority to have an independent source of expert advice on intellectual property and licensing – and some do, I know. To the extent that any of the authorities have been reliant on OS/GeoPlace to advise them, we have to consider whether OS/GeoPlace themselves are implicated in any misunderstanding the authorities may have of their legal obligations.

How accessible is GeoPlace to different teams within each council, for example? Are OS/GeoPlace doing enough to raise the profile of their advisory function? (Why is guidance published in a private KHub group rather than somewhere we can all link to it? OS and GeoPlace both have extensive websites and public blogs.)

Perhaps it is also time for the LGA to take a more active role in support for its members in this area.

Not ready for bed yet

As you would expect, I have further thoughts on some of the more contentious remarks in Ordnance Survey's email. In particular I'm interested in the way that OS/GeoPlace seem to have conflated contractual definitions from the DCA ("Authority Owned Data") with the more fact-sensitive criteria for acquisition of IP rights under statutory regimes. It may also be worth exploring the question of whether mere publication is necessarily a form of re-use at all, when the information has been lawfully disclosed under FOI.

I intend to reply to Ordnance Survey's email by the end of next week and will publish that reply.

I will write more shortly, including about plans for the future of my Council Tax address data project. (Preview: not stopping.)

Previous posts related to the campaign for open address data in the UK

Gedling Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

North Tyneside Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

Tewkesbury Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (1 May 2025)

Norwich City Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (30 April 2025)

South Norfolk District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (29 April 2025)

Broadland District Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (28 April 2025)

Calderdale Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (26 April 2025)

East Riding of Yorkshire Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (25 April 2025)

Broxtowe Borough Council has released its Council Tax address list as open data (24 April 2025)