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Data Quality Policy

At a glance

  • Data quality overview
  • What does this mean for me?
  • Proportion of minimum valid data expected

Data quality overview

Improving and maintaining the quality of the data we have for registrants and that we publish in our WHOIS database is a key objective for Nominet. We believe it is an important part of ensuring that the UK namespace is a trusted and safe space. We continue to take steps to achieve this and believe that our registrars also have a key role to play.

Our Data Quality Policy sets out how we expect registrars to work with us to improve our data quality.

To meet this you should:

  • Ensure that the data you submit meets our data completeness check by complying with the format requirements set out in the Data Quality Policy; and
  • Take steps to ensure that a minimum proportion of the data submitted to Nominet can be validated when we check it against our third party data sources

What does this mean for me?

Our data quality process consists of two elements, both have implications for registrars:

  • Data completeness checks for all data submitted through registration systems
  • A data validation process, where we will automatically attempt to validate the name and address data provided by registrars. If data cannot be validated through this initial process, we (or the registrar for Accredited Channel Partner tags) may undertake further validation activities

Our compliance programme was created to ensure registrars comply with the standards set out in the Registry-Registrar Agreement and Data Quality Policy.

Minimum proportion of valid data expected

The Data Quality Policy states that registrars must ensure that a reasonable, minimum proportion of the data they submit to us can be validated through our third party data sources.  We will work with registrars to set an appropriate minimum proportion of valid data dependent on their specific business model and geographic mix, and our teams will support registrars to meet this standard.

We will also continue to work with you to validate data that has not passed our automated checks in the past.

Things to look out for

To ensure a minimum proportion of the data submitted to Nominet can be validated, registrars may wish to adjust their up-front data capture process, e.g. using address validation software, and formatting data entry fields to ensure accuracy where possible.

Sole traders and partnerships (i.e. non-limited companies) often pose a particular challenge in data validation. The proportion of validated data can be increased by ensuring that the trading name is submitted in the ‘trading as’ field and that the ‘registrant field’ contains the name(s) of the individual(s).

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