Who will address the postcode mess?
In the carnival of absurdities that is government policy on public sector information, few performances are more bizarre than that surrounding postal address data. Nearly everyone has a postal address and most householders assume they “own” it. Unlike in France, say, no law stops us removing our number and calling our home what we like. But as usual with cases highlighted by Guardian Technology’s Free our Data campaign, the truth is not so simple. During the past seven years, disagreement between different state bodies and state-owned companies over who owns intellectual property has blocked the creation of a definitive national list of addresses. As a result, says geographer and local councillor Robert Barr, emergency responses get sent to the wrong place, council tax goes uncollected and government plans are put in jeopardy. This chaos arises directly from the UK government’s policy of encouraging state-owned bodies, which are usually monopolies in their fields, to treat information
