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Public Guide 24 – INSPIRE

Issued: November 2011

What this guide covers

This guide provides information on the INSPIRE service and Land Registry's role within INSPIRE.

1 Meaning of terms used

Cadastral parcel	Across Europe the cadastre is the mechanism used to record and manage land based information relating to land ownership and taxation. We have a different approach in England and Wales, where land ownership is recorded by Land Registry. In England and Wales the index polygon represents the INSPIRE cadastral parcel. A cadastral parcel is a single area or parcel of land under unique ownership and with the same property rights.
Dataset	A collection of information (data).
Footprint of the building	The surface area occupied by a building, such as a block of flats.
Freehold	Property held without any limitation on the duration of ownership.
Index map	A computerised dataset providing an index of the indicative boundary of a property registration.
Index polygon	An indicative area of land that is registered with Land Registry.
Leasehold	Property held for a term of years set out in a lease.
Location information	A reference to a specific location or geographic area.
Register	This provides a record of legal ownership and other matters relating to property/land, such as the name and address of the legal owner. For more information about registers see Public Guide 3 – General Land Registry information.
Title number	A unique reference for registered land.
Title plan	Plan prepared to accompany the register. This is based upon Ordnance Survey maps and indicates the extent of the property.
Spatial data	Information that corresponds to a location, such as the location of a road and house number, allowing it to be viewed on a map.
www.data.gov.uk	Promotes the use of government data and is run by the Cabinet Office. The UK INSPIRE services can be accessed from here.

2 What is INSPIRE?

INSPIRE is a European Commission (EC) initiative aimed at making spatial data more accessible. Spatial data is information that corresponds to a location, allowing it to be viewed on a map. The name INSPIRE is derived from an Infrastructure for Spatial InfoRmation in Europe.

The service helps to share information among public sector organisations and provides public access to that information. Member states across Europe have standardised their INSPIRE spatial information to make it available to discover, view and download.

In the UK, the INSPIRE Directive is being coordinated by UK Location. UK Location is a UK pan-government initiative to improve the sharing and re-use of public sector location information. Established following the publication of the UK Location Strategy, it incorporates the implementation of the Location strategy and the EC INSPIRE directive.

3 What is Land Registry's involvement with INSPIRE?

Land Registry is responsible for publishing the INSPIRE cadastral parcel layer for England and Wales. At the European level INSPIRE cadastral parcels describe land ownership. For England and Wales land ownership is recorded by Land Registry.

To comply with the INSPIRE directive Land Registry has developed an INSPIRE dataset and service, the content and structure of which is defined and controlled by the EC. Land Registry has created its INSPIRE index polygon dataset to meet the cadastral parcel data standard.

Land Registry has also introduced an INSPIRE service to provide web access to search (discover) and view Land Registry INSPIRE index polygons. It will be possible to download INSPIRE freehold index polygons in the future.

UK INSPIRE datasets are available to search and view at data.gov.uk. They will also be available via an EC GeoPortal in the future.

4 Land Registry's INSPIRE data and its limitations

4.1 INSPIRE index polygons

Land Registry's INSPIRE index polygon dataset is a subset of the Land Registry index map, containing freehold registrations only and structured to meet the requirements of the INSPIRE cadastral parcel data specification.

The index map is a computerised dataset providing an index of the indicative boundary of a property registration. When land is registered with Land Registry it is given a distinctive reference known as a title number. Each registered title is represented on the index map by a spatial shape known as a polygon.

The polygons are shown at the same scale as the underlying Ordnance Survey large-scale map. The scales used are 1:1,250 – 1:10,000.

Each polygon within our data on INSPIRE is labelled with a unique identification (ID) number known as a 'Land Registry-INSPIRE ID'.

Each individual ID will relate to only a single title number; however a single title number could be represented by several IDs, such as:

a farm consisting of several fields and buildings that do not adjoin
houses that have non-adjoining garages or outbuildings.

The ID can be used to get more information about registered land – see 6.1 Find a property service.

If a property or piece of land does not have a Land Registry-INSPIRE ID, it is possible that it is not registered. It could be a leasehold registration or one of the other forms of ownership that are not represented in our INSPIRE freehold index polygons.

4.2 Limitations

INSPIRE index polygons represent only freehold registrations and are not suitable to undertake searches of all registered properties. For more information about searches of the index map see our Practice Guide 10 – Official searches of the index map. Additionally you may be able to confirm registration of a property and get further information through our Find a property service.
The INSPIRE index polygon dataset is updated at published intervals and will only be current at the published date. It is possible that a small number of freehold registrations will not be represented in the INSPIRE index polygon dataset.
The extent of properties or land cannot be established from the polygons on INSPIRE. You will need to look at the individual title plan and register to determine this. For more information see Find a property.
Polygons at the same location but at different vertical heights may show more than one Land Registry-INSPIRE ID. This is a representation of the number of polygons at that location.
To ensure the index map is clear and uncluttered, small polygons may be exaggerated in size while registrations within buildings may be shown to the footprint of the building.
A small number of freehold index polygons are not present in the INSPIRE index polygon dataset due to data restructuring and conformance issues.

It is important to understand the limitations of our data and how it represents the features on the ground, such as the physical boundaries of a property. The majority of registered titles establish only the general boundaries of land, meaning that a title plan shows the boundary of a property in relation to its physical features on the ground, such as a hedge or a wall. As a result the title plan is not definitive as to the exact position of the boundaries.

Land Registry Public Guide 19 – Title plans and boundaries provides general guidance while Practice Guide 40 – Land Registry plans provides more detailed information about plans records.

5 What INSPIRE services are available?

There are two services available, Discover and View. Both are free. Download services are planned for November 2012.

Discover and View can be accessed from:

5.1 Discover service

This service enables you to find out what data is available on INSPIRE from all contributing European Union member states.

5.2 View service

You can use this service to evaluate your chosen data and see if it meets your needs.

6 How can I get other Land Registry products and services?

6.1 Find a property service

You can get copies of registers, title plans and Flood Risk Indicator results for more than 23 million registered properties in England and Wales using our Find a property service. If you are interested in further information about the polygon you have viewed on INSPIRE please visit our Find a property service. The Land Registry-INSPIRE ID can be used in conjunction with this service.

Find a property provides a plain copy of registers and title plans. If you require official copies you will need to apply to us. For more information see our Practice Guide 11 – Inspection and application for official copies.

7 Frequently asked questions

Question	Answer
How much does it cost to view Land Registry index polygons in INSPIRE?	Viewing INSPIRE data is free of charge. The cost of using our Find a property service and getting data is set out on Find a property.
If a piece of land or property is shown to have no Land Registry-INSPIRE ID does this mean that it is unregistered?	If a property or piece of land does not have a Land Registry-INSPIRE ID, it may not be registered. Alternatively, it could be a leasehold registration or one of the other tenures that are not present in the INSPIRE index polygons. If you have a postal code for the land or property you are interested in you can use our Find a property service to see if it is registered. You can also use this service to search by street name or by viewing a map of England and Wales. Using any of these options will help you to: find the piece of land you are interested in determine whether we hold any information for it buy that information. If you don't have a postal address you will need to complete a search of the index map. Our Public Guide 1 – A guide to the information we keep and how you can obtain it contains instructions about how you can do this.
Does every Land Registry title number correspond to a single Land Registry-INSPIRE ID?	Each registered title will have a single title number, but a title may contain several separate polygons. Each of these separate polygons will have a separate Land Registry-INSPIRE ID.
I know that my flat is registered at Land Registry but it does not have a Land Registry-INSPIRE ID. Why is this?	It could be a leasehold registration or one of the other tenures that are not present in our INSPIRE index polygons.
Why does the land I have viewed in INSPIRE have two different Land Registry-INSPIRE IDs?	This is because of the way we reference land on our index map. For example, titles that have the same footprint but are each limited to a certain floor (such as a block of flats) may be indexed to a similar footprint, resulting in a stack of polygons. This would appear as a single polygon, with multiple Land Registry-INSPIRE IDs.
I have purchased a title plan using the Land Registry-INSPIRE ID. Why does the extent on the title plan not correspond to the INSPIRE index polygon?	INSPIRE index polygons cannot be relied on to establish the extent of land or property. They are a subset of our index map and exist solely to enable the title number of any land or property registered to be established. To find out the registered extent of any piece of land or property with a Land Registry-INSPIRE ID you will need to look at the register and title plan. For more information see Find a property.
My Land Registry-INSPIRE ID is not recognised by your Find a property service. Why is this?	Because our INSPIRE index polygons are updated at published intervals they are only current at the published date – the data contained within the polygons is a snapshot in time. It is possible that by the time you have got a Land Registry-INSPIRE ID and used our Find a property service the polygon could have been deleted and replaced by another identical polygon with a fresh ID. We are making technical improvements to ensure that the IDs are resilient in all circumstances. If your Land Registry-INSPIRE ID is not recognised by Find a property you can still use this service to search by postcode, street name or by viewing a map of England and Wales. Using any of these options allows you to: find the piece of land you are interested in determine whether we hold any information for it purchase that information.
I have purchased a title plan for two different Land Registry-INSPIRE IDs and they are identical. Why is this?	Each registered title has a single title number but a title can contain several polygons. Therefore, a single title can be made up of several polygons each with separate Land Registry-INSPIRE IDs. For example, a farm that consists of several fields and buildings that do not adjoin, or a house that has a non-adjoining garage or outbuilding, will have one title number that covers several separate polygons. By labelling each polygon with a unique reference number (Land Registry-INSPIRE ID) we can easily separate polygons within a title.
I have viewed a property on the INSPIRE website and think the polygon shape is different to the extent on the ground. What should I do?	You will need to: get a copy of the title plan and register relating to the property. You can do this by using our Find a property service look at the title plan and register and bear in mind the limitations of our data. If you still think the extent is incorrect please write to us explaining the problem which we will consider. We will respond to you in writing explaining the outcome of our investigation.
Does Land Registry deal with enquiries from citizens outside of England and Wales?	We are able to deal with enquiries that originate from citizens anywhere in the world as long as they are in the English or Welsh language. Responses will also be in English and Welsh.