Getting the best deal on address information

A synopsis of activity by MRS since the National Address Gazetteer was proposed in December 2010:

Marketing and geodemographics need high quality address information for sample frames, contacting customers, and geocoding data for analysis. Therefore, there was immediate interest when the government announced in early December 2010 a joint venture between Ordnance Survey and the Local Government Group – GeoPlace – to create a definitive national address gazetteer (NAG).

However, it was also immediately apparent that access to NAG as proposed would be on a hybrid free to public sector (under the Public Sector Mapping Agreement) but charged to private sector basis. Also, that GeoPlace could gain an effective monopoly in address information, which, with continuing uncertainty about the future of the Postcode Address File (PAF), raised risks of lower quality and higher costs for private sector users. MRS decided to take steps to get a better deal.

Competition in the market for address information: OFT review

The proposed merger of interests in the joint venture had to be referred to the Office for Fair Trading (OFT), and MRS took the opportunity to put the case for a review of the whole market for address information on competition grounds, and responded for an invitation from OFT to make a further submission.

The main points in MRS’s submissions were:

NAG would be welcome in principle if it was freely available to all users under the same terms in line with wider government moves on public sector information

The merger gave rise to a risk of an effective monopoly with potentially harmful consequences for the private sector

A proper assessment of the market for address information was critically dependent on the uncertain future of the third main player, Royal Mail.

OFT was urged to refer the matter to the Competition Commission for a comprehensive review.

MRS understand that similar points were made by others, but OFT gave the go ahead for the joint venture whilst accepting that there would be less competition in the market for address information.

MRS was disappointed at the OFT decision, in part because it was based on suspect ‘de minimis’ grounds that the private sector did not buy the expansive products already available from the partners merging to form GeoPlace, so the impact of the merger would be minimal. Also, in part because it was based on an unsupported assumption that PAF availability would continue as at present.

The Postcode Address File:

Members of CGG are in touch with the Address Management Unit (AMU) of Royal Mail which produces the PAF, and AMU has confirmed that it has negotiated for PAF data, both full and ‘postal’ versions, to be included and regularly updated in NAG. The AMU had no definitive answers on the question of the future of PAF, except to note that PAF is ultimately an operational database.

Policy on public information and address information:

MRS has also been in touch with the Department of Communities and Local Government which has relevant policy responsibilities, and is also keeping connected with wider government developments, as yet at a formative stage, to make more public sector information accessible as ‘open data’, free at the point of use, through the Public Data Corporation.

MRS have been encouraged by these wider moves, and the fact that Ordnance Survey already offer some free at the point of use products as OS Open Data and that the extension of the range of such products is under consideration if there is value to the economy.

A case for NAG as open data:

The MRS Census and Geodemographics Group (CGG) has therefore made the case that NAG is a national asset funded by taxpayers, and the investment in it will only be fully realized if it is open data, free at the point of use to all sectors.

The case is viewable here

More information:

The GeoPlace website
This website covers news of developments on NAG, and has links to the initial announcement of NAG. It also contains links to details of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA), which provides free at the point of use access to NAG for specified parts of the public sector.

The Ordnance Survey website
This website has information about OS Open Data.

The full OFT report on the GeoPlace merger can be downloaded as a PDF from here.

This MRS page will be updated with significant further developments.