Raw Data Extracts Flexible raw data options
What are they?
Simply a file of the data you require. Take Full PAF®, Multiple Residence and Postzon for the whole of the UK, or just an extract to suit your needs. NSPD data is also available. Bespoke supply lets you handle and manipulate the data and build your own application. It is available in a range of formats to suit your needs. We can also customise your extract – for example a radius-based extract or a random sample of addresses for market research purposes.
Who uses them?
A wide range of businesses and industry types developing bespoke applications, data analysts, direct marketing and utility companies.
Why should I use raw data?
The data is tailored to your requirements so you only get the data you want.
What data is available?
- Royal Mail's Postcode Address File (PAF®) - 1.7 million Postcodes and 28 million Delivery Points including UDPRN
- Royal Mail’s Multiple Residence address file – over 400,000 additional addresses at Delivery Point, identifying where a single property shares the same letter box for multiple residences
- Royal Mail's Alias Data - Former Postal, Administrative and Traditional Counties
- Postzon - 100m Grid References, NHS Health Authority codes and names, Local Authority information, OSGB36 and ETRS89 Longitudes and Latitudes
- Current County from Allies®
- National Statistics Postcode Database from ONS - Primary Care Trust codes and names
- Up to monthly data updates
- Data aggregation - average Grid Reference values for Postcode Sectors and Districts
- Channel Islands and Isle of Man Grid Reference data calculated by Allies®
- Filtering of data to allow searching on building names, dependent streets and other fields which are normally aggregated with other data in a field
- Changes only data files
How do I pay for it?
Pricing is bespoke depending on the data you need. A range of licences for unlimited use are available for single or multiple users. Typical prices start from £120 + VAT. Please contact us to get your bespoke quote for your specific requirements.
More Details
Which data formats are available?
CSV, fixed text format or as required. For more information, please ask us.
Which PAF® and Postzon fields are available?
Please click below to see a detailed list of all of the PAF® and Postzon fields available, their maximum field length, the field names and the field codes.
Extract Level: 
= standard 
= optional
| Field Name/Column Heading | Description | Premise | Thoroughfare | Locality | Postzon | Max Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA | Building Name (eg Rose Cottage, Bush Tower) | Yes | No | No | No | 50 |
| CAT | User category (Residential, Non-residential or Large | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 1 |
| CCN | Current County | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 30 |
| CTA | Administrative County (top tier local government) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 30 |
| CTP | Former Postal County | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 30 |
| CTT | Traditional County | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 30 |
| DDL | Double Dependent Locality (small village) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 35 |
| DDLDLO* | Localities - postal order | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 71 |
| DLO | Dependent Locality (large village) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 35 |
| DLODDL* | Localities - sorting order | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 71 |
| DPS | Delivery Point Suffix(es) (eg 3AB) | Yes | No | No | No | 3 |
| DPSORGPRM* | Organisation, Premise - full (see PRM), DPS and Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (URN) | Optional | No | No | No | 168 |
| DPSPRM* | Premise - full (see PRM), DPS and URN | Optional | No | No | No | 107 |
| DST | Dependent Street (thoroughfare) | Yes | Yes | No | No | 80 |
| DSTSTR* | Streets - postal order | Optional | Optional | No | No | 161 |
| GME | Grid mean easting in metres (Postzon 100 metre reference) | No | No | No | Optional | 6 |
| GMN | Grid mean northing in metres (Postzon 100 metre reference) | No | No | No | Optional | 7 |
| GRE | Grid Easting (100 metre reference) | No | No | No | Yes | 5 |
| GRN | Grid Northing (100 metre reference) | No | No | No | Yes | 6 |
| LGE | Longitude - ETRS89 | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 15 |
| LGO | Longitude - OSGB36 | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 15 |
| LNC | Country Code | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 3 |
| LNN | Country Name | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 30 |
| LOCTWN* | Locality and Post town | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 102 |
| LOCTWNCTA* | Locality, Post town and Administrative County | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 133 |
| LOCTWNCTT* | Locality, Post town and Traditional County | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 133 |
| LTE | Latitude - ETRS89 | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 15 |
| LTO | Latitude - OSGB36 | Optional | Optional | Optional | No | 15 |
| NDP | Number of Delivery points in this Postcode record (not the entire Postcode) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 3 |
| NHS | NHS Strategic Health Authority or Health Board Code | No | No | No | Yes | 3 |
| NNH | NHS Strategic Health Authority or Health Board name | No | No | No | Yes | 40 |
| NNR | NHS Regional Office name | No | No | No | Yes | 30 |
| NUM | Street Number(s) (e.g. 6, 4A, 22-24) (not populated if tidy premise option selected) | Yes | No | No | No | 12 |
| NUMRANGE* | All Street Number (NUM) values for the Postcode record summarised as ranges | Optional | No | No | No | 1299 |
| ORD | Department(s) (within Organisation) | Yes | No | No | No | 60 |
| ORG | Organisation name(s) | Yes | No | No | No | 60 |
| ORGORD* | Organisation(s), department(s) | Optional | No | No | No | 121 |
| ORGPRM* | Organisation and Premise - full (PRM) | Optional | No | No | No | 155 |
| PCD | Postcode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | 8 |
| PCG | NHS Primary Care Trust/Local Health Board (Group) Code | No | No | No | Yes | 3 |
| PNH | NHS Primary Care Trust Strategic Health Authority code | No | No | No | Yes | 30 |
| PNP | NHS Primary Care Trust/Local Health Board (Group) Name | No | No | No | Yes | 40 |
| POB | PO Box number (optionally with "PO Box" or other custom text) | Yes | No | No | No | 6/12 |
| PRM | Premise - full. Street number and/or Sub-building and Building names (/ delimiter) | Yes | No | No | No | 94 |
| PRMFMT* | Premise name - formatted - formatted list of premise info for all residential delivery points for the Postcode record | Optional | No | No | No | 10099 |
| SBN | Sub-building Name(s) (eg Flat 1, Unit A etc) | Yes | No | No | No | 30 |
| SCD | Sortcode (for Royal Mail Mailsort) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 5 |
| STR | Street - main or only street (thoroughfare) | Yes | Yes | No | No | 80 |
| STRDST* | Streets - sorting order | Optional | Optional | No | No | 161 |
| TWN | Post town | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | 30 |
| URN | Unique Delivery Point Reference Number (UDPRN) | Yes | No | No | No | 8 |
| WCD | Local or Unitary Authority Ward Code | No | No | No | Yes | 6 |
| WNA | Local or Unitary Authority name | No | No | No | Yes | 30 |
| WNW | Local or Unitary Authority Ward name | No | No | No | Yes | 40 |
Fields marked with an asterisk * denote complex fields - see individual field descriptions for details of each component. Field lengths for complex fields include comma "," or slash "/" delimiters between the fields. Some fields are always populated, where present in an extract - these are TWN, PCD and NDP. In addition, for premise level extracts DPS and URN are always populated.
WCD - Local/Unitary Authority Ward Code
This code is structured as follows - 33UHHX
- 33 - For two-tier Local Authorities this is the county portion. Unitary Authorities do not have a county code.
- UH - This is the code for the Local/Unitary Authority. In England, Wales and Scotland including the Scottish Islands, this is a two-character code. In Northern Ireland, the first character is a letter from A - Z with the second character represented by a space.
- HX - code for the Ward within the Local/Unitary Authority.
PCG - Primary Care Trust Code (formerly the Primary Care Group Code)
This field now contains the Primary Care Trust (PCT) code for England and Local Health Board (LHB) code for Wales. Primary Care Trust information is only available in England and Wales. Where Primary Care Trust information is unavailable (Scotland and Northern Ireland) a default PCT code may be allocated of 'X98'.
What fields are available in the Multiple Residence file?
Multiple Residence addresses can be extracted with PAF® and the premise names and numbers will appear within the normal ORG, NUM, and BNA fields for example. The additional fields supplied are Multi-Occupied Count (MOCC) maximum length 4, Unique Multiple Residence Reference Number (UMRRN) maximum length 8 and Data Origin (DTO - MR or PAF®) maximum length 1.
Why should I have Multiple Residence data as well as PAF®?
MR data provides additional addresses for marketing purposes. It also identifies where 1 Delivery Point on PAF® contains multiple residences by displaying the number and detail of the individual residences. Every additional occupied address at Delivery Point level can be recognised individually, which is useful for delivery of goods or for utility companies. It covers 121 Postcode areas, there are no records for the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man (JE, IM and GY).
Can I amalgamate PAF® with MR data?
Yes, we can extract MR data amalgamated with PAF®, as a separate file, or on its own.
Why do I get a "File not loaded completely" message when I open my data extract in Excel?
Microsoft Excel has a built in limitation for the number of records it can read in a worksheet. This was 65,536 rows in Excel 2000 and 1,048,576 rows in Excel 2007. If you purchase a PAF® Data extract at one record per premise for an entire Postcode Area, or full U.K., it is likely that you will exceed this limit. Data at one record per Postcode may fit into an Excel worksheet for a single Postcode area.
To resolve this, you can either:
- Use a database package such as Microsoft Access.
- Request the data from us at one record per Postcode or in split files.
