News

Postcode information, like any dynamic data, is continually changing and evolving which is why keeping Postcode information up to date is essential for many businesses that rely upon it. As part of our commitment to keep our customers up to date, we source and apply the latest Postcode and Government information updates to all of our data and map products every 3 months.

For the latest update, we have also made a few changes to products as a result of customer feedback and requests.

Parliamentary Constituency Data & The 2017 General Election

The latest Parliamentary Constituency data includes all the latest Postcode changes and the status of MP's and Parties at the dissolution of Parliament on Wednesday 3rd May 2017.

The MP changes to the database over the previous 3 months were as a result of By-Elections in the following constituencies.

Copeland was won on 23rd February 2017 by Trudy Harrison in a Conservative gain as a result of the retirement of Jamie Reed.

Stoke-on-Trent Central was won on 23rd February 2017 by Gareth Snell in a Labour hold as a result of the retirement of Tristram Hunt.

Manchester Gorton  is currently vacant as a result of the death of Sir Gerald Kaufman and will be contested at the General Election on 8th June 2017.

We have been asked how soon this product will be updated after the General Election and, as with the General Election of 2015, we will be applying an immediate update once all results are finalised. We expect to release this by Friday 16th June 2017.

The information is available as Postcode lists in Access, Excel or CSV format or as a Postcode to Constituency Excel matching spread sheet which automatically appends constituency information to your list of Postcodes.

 EU Referendum Results

For the EU Referendum on 23rd June 2016, Local authorities weren’t required to publish the results of the EU Referendum by Parliamentary constituency or by ward and, in most cases, they sub-divided their count process which removed the possibility to get ward or constituency breakdowns.

Nevertheless, some local authorities did publish the results by ward and Parliamentary constituency and Northern Ireland also published the results of the referendum for each of its 18 constituencies.

Because of the lack of local results for the EU referendum by Parliamentary Constituency, estimates published by Dr Chris Hanretty of the University of East Anglia are often used to analyse the results at constituency level. Dr Hanretty modelled the results by determining the relationship between the population demographics of local authorities and their referendum results, and then using this profile to project the results for each constituency based on the characteristics of its demographic profile.

Subsequently, the BBC also asked all local authorities in charge of counting the result in their area for voting figures broken down by ward. Of the 1,283 wards the BBC were able to collect data for, 857 of these could be transformed into 107 Parliamentary constituencies to give precise, known, voting figures for the referendum in that area.

The EU Referendum results by constituency can be downloaded for free and it is also included with our Postcode to Parliamentary Constituency Lookup Table.

We have also added the spread sheet of EU Referendum results by Local Authority to our Postcode to Local Authority Lookup table.

You can also see a few simple maps of the EU Referendum results here >

Postcode to Ceremonial County Lookup

Due to popular demand, we have added ceremonial county names to our Postcode to County Lookup table.

We have always included Administrative and Traditional County names, but to make the product complete we have now added Ceremonial county names. Therefore, no matter what your application or requirement for county names - we have the county name for you!

You can read more about the Postcode to county lookup file here and why there is a county name confusion at all here!

How Do Updates Affect Postcode Products?

Changes to Postcodes have a direct impact on a whole range of Postcode based products which must be updated to reflect the ever-changing Postcode landscape. Here are some examples of how Postcode changes may affect you:

If you use Postcodes for Business Analysis

Look up tables which relate Postcodes to other information such as Parliamentary Constituencies, Local Authority Information, Grid References must all be updated to ensure the analysis of Postcode related records and information is accurate and up to date.

In addition to updating the Postcodes themselves, we also take the opportunity to update all the related information such as MP names, Ward names and so on to ensure these references are also current.

If you use Postcodes for Address Management

Sometimes existing Postcodes do change for households and people move in to new build homes with brand new addresses and Postcodes. Companies providing services or delivering products to these homes need to ensure their systems are up to date to capture and update these new addresses.

Our Royal Mail PAF databases are therefore all updated to reflect the latest Postcode changes and help companies keep their customer data accurate and up to date.

If you use Postcodes for mapping Sales Territories or Franchise Areas

Changes to the Postcode system can also impact the Postcode boundaries themselves which are widely used in GIS and mapping software such as MapInfo, ESRI and Intergraph products for a range of business tasks including mapping sales territories and planning franchise areas.

New Postcodes can change the Postcode structure geographically and we meticulously review these changes to ensure all our digital Postcode boundary files reflect these latest changes.

The next Postcode update is expected to take place in June 2017 but if you have any questions on the latest Postcode changes and how they may affect you please contact us.

As we have recently added EU referendum results to both our Postcode to Local Authority and Postcode to Parliamentary Constituency lookup products, we thought it would be interesting to produce a couple of simple GB maps to compare how the results looked at Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency level.

Northern Ireland was not included in the maps as actual results were published for the Constituencies in Northern Ireland.

Brexit Vote Maps

We first produced two maps to simply illustrate if areas voted Leave or Remain, The first is the actual result by Local Authority where red is Remain and blue is Leave,

Brexit Vote map by Local Authority

The second map is the Brexit vote by Parliamentary Constituency. As results were not published at constituency level, many of these figures are estimates - you can read more about the estimated EU referendum results by Parliamentary Constituency here >

Brexit Vote map by Parliamentary Constituency

The first thing to note is that there are 650 Parliamentary Constituencies and only 380 Local Authorities and therefore there is much more granularity in the constituency map.

Aside from that, the patterns are very similar with Scotland, South Central, London and smaller pockets voting Remain but more rural areas of England voting Leave.

EU Referendum Vote % Maps

We also created a map showing the % vote to Leave by both Local Authority and Parliamentary Constituency. In these maps areas are given a range of colours from Blue to Red. Blue areas have the lowest vote to Leave % (and therefore highest vote to Remain %) and the redder the area, the higher the vote to Leave %.

Again, % Vote to Leave by Local Authority is first.

Vote to Leave % map by Local Authority

And by Parliamentary Constituency.

Vote to Leave % map by Parliamentary Constituency

Again, we can see subtle differences in the vote to leave % geographically but the general pattern shown by local authority and Parliamentary Constituency - as we would hope - remains the same.

 The Underlying Data

If you are interested in the numbers behind the maps, you can download both spread sheets in Excel format for free. 

EU Results by Local Authority >

EU Results by Parliamentary Constituency >

 Copyrights & Sources

The source of the Referendum result figures by Parliamentary Constituency are as follows:

BBC                – The BBC research. BBC, Local voting figures shed new light on EU referendum, 6 Feb 2017

DrCH              – Dr Chris Hanretty. Chris Hanretty, Revised estimates of leave vote share in Westminster constituencies, 18 August 2016

Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right (2017)

OS OpenData is free to use under the Open Government Licence (OGL).

As part of our commitment to encourage the use of maps in small and local businesses, we are now offering free delivery on all our Leeds maps to local businesses in the Leeds area.

In fact, you don't even have to be based in Leeds! Any business needing maps for planning in the Leeds area can take advantage of this offer. 

Which Leeds Map Are Available?

The main wall maps we have for Leeds that are popular with local businesses are shown below. These maps are popular with local franchises, retailers and any business that provides home delivery of products or services for local customers.

You can see the full collection of Leeds maps here but if you want to create your own custom or personalised Leeds map, you can use use our online Map Maker system >

What is the Offer?

All you have to do is choose the map you need (maps specifically for the Leeds area can be found on our Leeds Map page) and enter the discount code #WeLoveLeeds when checking out to get free delivery.

Why Leeds?

It's a good question! And to be honest, the simple answer is that one of our Directors grew up in Leeds (Alwoodley to be exact!) plus it is a thriving, cosmopolitan city and one of the major business centres of the North.

Of course we hope to roll out local business offers to other cities and towns across the UK but wanted to test in a place we were a little familiar with.

If you are not familiar with Leeds, we found this little slide show which may help :)

The tables below detail the latest October 2016 Postcode changes and address statistics for reference.

Business & Vacant Organisations

This table shows the number of businesses and vacant organisations on the Royal Mail address database, the Postcode Address File (PAF®). The table compares September figures with those from August, identifying the percentage variation between the months.

PAF^® Delivery Point Changes

The number of delivery point additions, deletions and changes in October.

New Sectors & Localities

This table shows the sectors and localities applied to the Postcode Address File (PAF®) system in October.

Overall PAF Statistics and Changes

This table shows the total numbers of Postcodes and delivery points as of October 2016. Download the Full Report >

Postcode Definitions

"Postcode Area" means the outward part of the Postcode made up of the first one or two alphabetic text only characters. For example, 'OX' from OX7 5LJ and 'B' from B1 3ND.

"Postcode District" means the outward part of the Postcode. For example, 'OX7' from OX7 5LJ and 'B1' from B1 3ND.

"Postcode Sector" means the outward part of the Postcode plus the first numeric digit from the inward part of the Postcode. For example, 'OX7 5' from OX7 5LJ and 'B1 3' from B1 3ND.

"Postcode" means the full Postcode. For example OX7 5LJ and B1 3ND

"Small User Postcode" is a Postcode containing a collection of (usually) adjacent addresses. A single small user postcode may contain up to 100 addresses, but 15 is a more typical number.

"Large User Postcode" are allocated to single addresses receiving at least 500 mail items per day (e.g. business addresses).

"PO Box" is a numbered box in a Post Office assigned to a person or organization, where letters for them are kept until called for.

"Delivery Point" is a complete postal address (business or residential), including a Postcode. to which mail is delivered.

The Results

Two by-elections were held on the 20th October 2016 for the vacant seats of Batley and Spen and and Witney.

Batley and Spen had become vacant due to the tragic murder of Jo Cox in June. The seat was uncontested by the other parties out of respect to Jo and was won by Labour's Tracy Brabin with 85% of the vote.

Witney had become vacant following the resignation of David Cameron as MP in September. The seat was won by Conservative's Robert Courts with 45% of the vote.

Products Affected

These by-election results have been reflected in the following Postcode to Parliamentary Constituency products and have affected 11,553 Postcode records in total: 7,772 Postcodes in Witney and 3,781 Postcodes in Batley and Spen.

The Postcodes to Parliamentary Constituency Lookup Database >

The Postcode to Parliamentary Constituency Automated Matching Excel Spread Sheet >