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The Postcode Address File (PAF) is a data file available from the Royal Mail.

Every house and business in the United Kingdom has been given a postal address by Royal Mail. This address is used as a routing instruction by Royal Mail staff to sort and deliver mail quickly and accurately. However, it is not always a geographically accurate description of where a property is located. [1]

The PAF is a complete collection of over 27 million Royal Mail postal addresses and UK postcodes. It is available in a variety of formats including Digital Audio Tape and compact disc. A charge is made for lookup services or wholesale supply of PAF data.

Contents 1 Structure of the file 2 Application 3 Alias data 4 Errors 5 See also 6 External links

ELEMENT        FIELD NAME                           MAX LENGTH

Organisation   Organisation Name                    60
               Department Name                      60

Premise        Sub Building Name                    30
               Building Name                        50
               Building Number                       4

Thoroughfare   Dependent Thoroughfare Name          60
               Dependent Thoroughfare Descriptor    20
               Thoroughfare Name                    60
               Thoroughfare Descriptor              20

Locality       Double Dependent Locality            35
               Dependent Locality                   35
               Post Town                            30

Postcode       Postcode                              7

PO Box         PO Box                                6

The data is used by a wide range of organisations for a variety of activities other than directing mail, such as marketing, government statistics, calculating insurance premia and credit referencing.

The Alias File is a supplementary file containing additional data, including details that have changed over time, or have been slightly amended by the public, and then used. This file is used to identify these elements and cross-reference with the official postal address.

The Alias File holds four types of record: Locality, Thoroughfare, Delivery Point Alias, and County Alias:

• The Locality record - holds short forms, local names, and 'postally-not-required' (PNRL) details.
• The Thoroughfare record - contains replacement street and road names for a given locality, thoroughfare or dependent thoroughfare combination.
• The Delivery Point Alias record - holds additional information at given addresses, such as trading names and building names.
• The County record - holds traditional, administrative and postal county information.

The Royal Mail, in their guide to the data products (PAF Digest, p12) imply that the county alias information was provided when the Royal Mail removed the former postal county from the main file.

The Royal Mail acknowledges that the PAF contains errors, and publishes forms for submitting error reports. A very small number of addresses are not listed correctly, and others (especially new developments) may not be listed at all for a period of time.

• Post town
• UK postcodes

• PAF from Royal Mail
• Alias File from Royal Mail
• www.freethepostcode.org - A community effort to build a public domain database of UK postcodes against GPS coordinates.
• www.npemap.org.uk - A community effort to build a public domain database of UK postcodes via clicks on maps from the 1950s (for those who don't have a GPS device).
• Online access to Postcode Address File