Property: Databases

(asked on 21st November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of measures to encourage the adoption of Unique Property Reference Numbers in government databases.


Answered by
Baroness Neville-Rolfe Portrait
Baroness Neville-Rolfe
Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
This question was answered on 5th December 2023

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office does not undertake a central assessment of measures to encourage adoption of Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRN) in government databases. Deployment and adherence to policies and standards is ultimately the responsibility of individual organisations.

CDDO currently has arrangements in place to increase adoption of data standards such as UPRNs. This includes the Data Standards Authority (DSA) and the Technology Code of Practice.

The DSA coordinates cross-government work to specify standards for government data systems and the DSA-endorsed UPRNs as an open standard in 2020. The Technology Code of Practice is used by the Cabinet Office Spend Controls assurance process; departments are required to appraise the use of open data standards such as UPRNs when they build or buy technology.

The Geospatial Commission, now part of the Department for Science Innovation and Technology and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, continues to promote the mandated adoption of UPRNs across the public sector.

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