2 June 2005

Capscan Supports Plans for the National Spatial Address Infrastructure

Capscan, a leading supplier of International address management solutions and data integrity services, today welcomed the plans from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) for The National Spatial Address Infrastructure (NSAI). Announced on 26th May, it is proposed that the NSAI will provide a single, definitive UK address database. However, Capscan has warned that it must have full buy-in across the entire UK government for it to succeed.

"The success of this project hinges on the ability to ensure that all local authorities are made to contribute to the data pool and the necessary funds 'ring fenced' to allow this to happen," comments Sales Director at Capscan, David Mead. "All too often budget is used for more politically sensitive projects and a full local dataset is not completed which in turn means the national project is not complete and people lose faith in its accuracy and completeness."

The outline prospectus from the ODPM proposes that the NSAI will take two-and-a-half years to complete and will incorporate the Local Land and Property Gazetteer (LLPG), the NLPG, the National Street Gazetteer, the Postcode Address File (PAF) and Ordnance Survey AddressPoint to deliver a single, comprehensive nationally consistent source of address data.

Mead adds, "All parties must be obliged or even forced to contribute their data to the national picture with the rights funds in place to make this possible." Capscan looks forward to being able to supply the NSAI to both private and public sector businesses, as the definitive address dataset for the UK.

To download the ODPM paper entitled 'Towards the National Spatial Address Infrastructure' please visit: http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_planning/documents/downloadable/odpm_plan_037965.pdf