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Why this matters: check open data first
FOI is a powerful tool, but it comes with a 20-working-day minimum wait, a risk of refusal, and the possibility of triggering a complex appeal process. Before filing a request, good data journalists check what is already published. In many cases the data you need is already available — often updated monthly — and using it is faster, more comprehensive, and leaves no paper trail that might alert a subject to your investigation.
This guide covers the most important open datasets available to UK journalists, organised by topic. For each source: whether it is free or paid, what format the data comes in, and the common journalism use cases.
When to reach for open data rather than FOI
- 1When you need data published on a regular schedule — ONS, NHS Digital, and data.police.uk are updated monthly or quarterly.
- 2When you want national totals or trends over time — open datasets often go back years or decades.
- 3When you are doing a comparative analysis across all councils, trusts, or police forces simultaneously.
- 4When your investigation is sensitive and you do not want to alert the authority with an FOI request.
- 5When the 20-working-day wait would kill your exclusive or miss a news hook.
- 6When you need data in a machine-readable format for analysis — APIs and bulk CSV downloads are far better for this than PDF FOI responses.
Red flags when using open data
- Data may be suppressed or rounded for small areas to protect privacy — always check the methodology notes.
- Open data is often the national picture; you may still need FOI for local or facility-level breakdowns.
- Publication lags — ONS and NHS data is typically published weeks to months after the reference period.
- Data quality varies enormously between councils publishing Transparency Code data — missing rows, inconsistent formats, and gaps are common.
- BAILII publishes judgments but there can be delays, and some tribunals publish separately or not at all.
- OpenCorporates and Aleph aggregate from third-party registries — always verify against the primary source.
Data sources by category
National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics is the UK's single largest open-data publisher. Devolved nations have their own equivalents.
Format: CSV, Excel, interactive
Population, births/deaths, economic output, inflation, crime surveys, labour market.
Format: Various
All departmental statistics publications in one place — prison, benefits, schools, courts.
Format: Excel, PDF
Scottish population, vital events, household surveys.
Business and Corporates
Company data in the UK is unusually open by international standards. Charity data is similarly accessible.
Format: Web, CSV bulk download, API
Director appointments, filings, accounts, confirmation statements, charges, PSC register (beneficial ownership).
Format: Web, CSV bulk download
Charity income, accounts, trustees, serious incident reports.
Land and Property
HM Land Registry publishes extensive free datasets on property ownership, prices, and corporate landlords.
Format: CSV bulk download
Every residential sale in England and Wales since 1995 — address, price, type.
Format: CSV
All land in England and Wales registered to an overseas company — essential for beneficial ownership stories.
Format: API, GeoPackage
Address matching, mapping property data.
Format: CSV
EPC ratings for individual properties — useful for housing, planning, and net-zero stories.
Politics and Parliament
Parliamentary records, expenses, donations, and lobbying data are all published openly.
Format: Web, API, XML
All speeches, questions, and votes in Commons and Lords. Searchable by MP, keyword, date.
Format: PDF, HTML
MPs' declared outside earnings, gifts, directorships, shareholdings.
Format: Web, CSV
Political party donations and loans above threshold — donors, amounts, dates.
Format: CSV
Campaign spending returns, candidate expenses at elections.
Health
NHS Digital (now NHSE) and related bodies publish extensive health datasets, many updated monthly.
Format: CSV, Excel
Hospital activity, waiting times, referrals, prescriptions — national and Trust level.
Format: Web, downloadable reports
Suspected adverse drug reactions and medical device incidents reported to the regulator.
Format: Web, API
Inspection outcomes (Outstanding/Good/Requires Improvement/Inadequate) for hospitals, care homes, GPs.
Format: Various
Infectious disease surveillance, health inequalities, environmental health data.
Police and Crime
The UK has some of the best open police data in the world — force-level crime, stop-search, and outcomes published monthly.
Format: CSV, API
Street-level crime, stop-and-search, and outcomes data by force and month. Updated monthly.
Format: PDF, web
Annual assessments of each police force — grades and detailed findings.
Format: Excel, PDF
Complaints, referrals, investigations, and outcomes by force.
Format: Excel
Prosecutions, convictions, sentences, reoffending rates — nationally and by offence type.
Education
School and university performance, finances, and accountability data are among the most complete open datasets in UK public life.
Format: Web, CSV
Key Stage results, absence rates, exclusions, Ofsted grades for every school in England.
Format: CSV bulk download
Academy trust income, expenditure, executive pay, related-party transactions.
Format: Web, CSV
Higher education access and participation, continuation, completion, graduate outcomes.
Format: CSV, Excel
Student numbers, staff headcount, income and expenditure, research income by university.
Local Government
Under the Local Government Transparency Code, every council must publish spending, contracts, and pay data. Quality varies.
Format: CSV (per council website)
Individual transactions above £500 — find supplier payments, grants, and unusual spend.
Format: CSV (per council website)
Suppliers, contract values, and durations — basis for procurement scrutiny stories.
Format: Excel
Revenue accounts, capital spending, council tax levels, reserves — all authorities.
Environment
Environmental data is covered by the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 — but much is already published by the Environment Agency and DEFRA.
Format: API, CSV
Real-time river quality, rainfall, flood risk. Sewage event duration monitoring (EDM) data.
Format: Web GIS, WMS
SSSIs, National Parks, flood zones, protected habitats — essential for planning and environment stories.
Courts and Legal
UK case law is freely searchable via BAILII. Court listings are less open, but improving.
Format: Web, HTML
Free access to judgments from UK courts and tribunals, including ICO Decision Notices.
Format: PDF, HTML
Some sitting lists published online. Used to track high-profile cases.
Format: Web (subscription)
Comprehensive court listing data for England and Wales — civil and criminal.
OSINT Staples
These cross-border and archival tools extend a journalist's reach beyond UK open data.
Format: Web
Historical snapshots of websites — capture deleted pages, track changes, verify claims.
Format: Web, API
Leaked datasets, company registries from 60+ countries, sanctions lists. Register required.
Format: Web, API (limited free)
Company data from 140+ jurisdictions — connect UK entities to overseas structures.
Data research checklist
- I have searched ONS, gov.uk statistics, and the relevant devolved statistics body for published data.
- For business/corporate angles: I have checked Companies House, Charity Commission, and the Insolvency Service register.
- For land and property: I have checked Land Registry price paid data and the overseas company ownership dataset.
- For political finance: I have searched IPSA, the Register of Members' Interests, and the Electoral Commission.
- For health: I have checked NHS Digital's published datasets before considering an FOI request.
- For crime: I have used data.police.uk and HMICFRS PEEL reports for force-level data.
- I have read the methodology notes or technical guide for any dataset I am using in a story.
- I have noted the publication date and reference period so my coverage is accurate about what the data represents.
- Only when open data does not cover my specific need: I will file an FOI request.
When open data is not enough
If open data does not cover the specific angle you need — granular local data, documents, or correspondence — use our FOI Request Builder to draft a targeted request in under two minutes.
Open FOI Request BuilderCommon mistakes
- Filing FOI requests for data that is already published — this wastes time and may alert subjects.
- Not checking the methodology notes — misreading suppressed data or population bases leads to factual errors.
- Treating ONS or NHS Digital figures as up-to-date without checking the reference period — data is often 6-12 months old.
- Using aggregate national data to make claims about a specific local area or authority.
- Quoting Companies House data without verifying it via the original company filing — the database has errors.
- Relying on Aleph or OpenCorporates without cross-checking against the primary official registry.
- Ignoring the Transparency Code — councils publish massive amounts of spending data that journalists rarely use.