Office for National Statistics Postcode Directory (ONSPD) Licensing

Postcodes.io

Software from the Postcodes.io project is freely available for commercial and non-commercial use under the MIT Licence.

Postcodes.io ingests a dataset from the Office for National Statistics called ONS Postcode Directory (ONSPD). ONSPD is updated quarterly. This dataset carries a separate licence to Postcodes.io.

ONSPD

ONSPD carries different licensing rules for Great Britain and Northern Ireland data.

Great Britain data from ONSPD carries an Open Government Licence. Information on the Open Government Licence is available at nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Northern Ireland data (i.e. postcodes beginning BT) carries a different licence depending on use case.

Non-Commercial Use

Both Great Britain and Northern Ireland data is free for non-commercial use.

Data from Great Britain may be used freely under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Data from Northern Ireland (postcodes beginning with BT) may be used under the terms of the ONSPD licence. Non-commercial use is free. Commercial use requires a licence from Land and Property Services (LPS) Northern Ireland.

Commercial Use

Great Britain data may be used commercially under the Open Government Licence, subject to the attribution statements below.

Northern Ireland data is permitted for Internal Business Use under the Northern Ireland End User Licence available from ONS. All other commercial usage requires a separate licence from Land and Property Services Northern Ireland.

Attribution

ONS requires the following statements wherever ONSPD data is used or published:

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

Northern Ireland data additionally requires "Contains Land and Property Services data © Crown copyright and database right [year]".

Sources

More information on licensing can be accessed on the Office for National Statistics licensing page.