Data sources
All information on UKGovscan is obtained from official public sources or from established republishers of official records. This page lists those sources and explains how figures are treated.
Treatment of figures
- Records are presented as released by their publisher, and figures are not altered. Where a value appears to be a data-entry error at source, it is flagged rather than corrected.
- Totals are calculated from the underlying records and may differ from official statistics because of differences in methodology, date ranges and gaps in the source data.
- Records are linked using official identifiers, such as company numbers, wherever these exist. Two records are attributed to the same person only where an identifier or corroborating data supports the match; a match on name alone is shown as an unconfirmed link.
- Where a company appears both in the lobbying register and on a contract award, both records are shown. In these cross-references, a contract’s value is divided equally between the suppliers named on the award. A connection of this kind records co-occurrence only and does not indicate a causal relationship.
- The appearance of a person or organisation in the data does not imply wrongdoing. Figures should be checked against the linked source before they are relied on or published. Suspected errors can be reported through the feedback page.
Licences
Most of the data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0 or the Open Parliament Licence. Historical registers of interests obtained from mySociety are published under CC BY 4.0.
Sources
Procurement and spending
- Contracts: Contracts Finder, Find a Tender, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales, 2019 to date
- Central government spending: GOV.UK departmental payments over £25,000
- Council spending: transaction-level spending data published by each council
- Council finances: MHCLG revenue outturn and financial health data
Companies and donations
- Companies: Companies House for company details, officers, persons with significant control, charges and accounts
- Political donations and loans: the Electoral Commission register
Charities and grants
- England and Wales: the Charity Commission register, including financials, trustees, pay bands and government-funding declarations
- Scotland: OSCR
- Northern Ireland: the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
- Grants: 360Giving and UKRI Gateway to Research
Parliament and lobbying
- MPs, peers and ministers: the Parliament Members API, including committees and government posts
- Registers of interests: the Register of Members’ Financial Interests and the Lords register, with historical registers from mySociety
- Expenses and staffing: IPSA, 2010 to date
- Lobbying: the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists register and quarterly returns, and departmental releases of ministerial meetings and gifts
Schools
- Directory: Get Information About Schools
- Funding, census, attainment and workforce: DfE Explore Education Statistics
- Inspections: Ofsted
Aid and public services
- Foreign aid: the IATI Datastore for project-level FCDO data and the OECD DAC for departmental flows
- Care providers: the Care Quality Commission
- Deprivation, population and public finances: the Indices of Deprivation and the ONS