A powerful series of enhancements to Ordnance Survey’s most detailed digital address data was launched on May 10, offering significant benefits to customers across Great Britain’s commercial and government sectors. The flexibility and national consistency of OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 will support analysis, decision making and service delivery by utility companies, insurers, retailers, local and central government and emergency services. As part of Ordnance Survey’s continually maintained geographic framework of Great Britain, the enriched data is fully integrated with the unique identifiers or TOIDs referencing the topographic and road network information in other OS MasterMap Layers.
To build and maintain OS MasterMap Address Layer 2, Ordnance Survey field surveyors across the country add high-resolution spatial references to more than 27 million postal addresses contained in the Royal Mail Postcode Address File (PAF). A new Royal Mail dataset of multiple residences, which provides complete address details of flats and apartments without individual postal delivery points, has been incorporated. These are supplied with the reference details of their parent delivery address, enabling easy identification of all properties receiving utility and other non-postal services.
All addresses have been classified into residential or commercial, together with a geographic alternative address such as the locality or district name where this is not normally included. Business premises are placed in sub-categories where their trading or brand name provides clear details of their function. More than half a million aliases, such as the name of the property as well as its number and street, have been added, and in Wales Welsh language alternatives are supplied.
In addition, more than a million properties that do not have postal addresses have been included. OS MasterMap Address Layer 2 is available in both GML (Geography Mark-up Language) and CSV (Comma Separated Values) format, making it easy and flexible to implement. The new data also meets the BS7666 part 3 standard.
