HM Land Registry will make its data assets easier to use and find as part of a three-year strategy. The improvements will follow consultation with customers of the department, Chief Geospatial and Data Officer Andrew Trigg said
“Over the next three years, we want to expand the opportunities for using our data in new ways,” Trigg wrote in an HM Land Registry blog. “We aim to increase the quality of our data, so it’s more valuable to a larger number of users. We hold a critical national asset and are responsible for allowing the nation to access and use it as effectively as possible.”
Trigg said that to date, HM Land Registry had focused on sharing additional data sets from the department register. Under the new strategy, the department instead will increase the usefulness of data that is already made available.
Interoperability will be a key focus, and the department will use the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) principles, which are popular in healthcare. Trigg said the FAIR principles were introduced by the Geospatial Commission to improve data location availability.
“The top priority our data customers identified was being able to access the right amount of data when needed and as close to real-time as possible. Application programming interfaces (APIs) obviously come into play here,” he said. HM Land Registry said it would refine its API strategy as a result.
The second demand from HM Land Registry customers was for easy links to other information, such as land information. Customers have also demanded improved metadata from the department, which Trigg said will be the third priority for the department.
Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRN) will be more widely used in HM Land Registry data sets, Trigg said, adding that they are already used in the National Polygon Service and Registered Lease Dataset.
The three-year programme is intended to ensure that the HM Land Registry data strategy supports the UK economy. “Our data is a national asset. By making our data easy to find, access, use and combine with other data, it will provide maximum value for the UK,” Trigg said.
UKAuthority recently held its annual AI & Data4Good event - this year on the rapid evolution of public sector data and how it can be used within the application of AI. On-demand videos of all sessions and speaker slides are available here
