How Oscar builds, maintains and enriches public sector intelligence through original research, open data, regulatory information, procurement data and published sources.
Oscar and PSN combine our own research with trusted public and regulatory sources to build a richer and more useful view of UK Public Services.
Since 1984, we have researched and maintained information about the organisations, people and activity that make up UK Public Services.
Today, that research is combined with public sector open data, regulatory and statutory information, procurement and expenditure data, published content and other legitimately available sources to power Oscar and PSN.
Our own primary research, verification and ongoing maintenance of public sector organisations, structures, contacts and related information.
Information published by UK government departments, public bodies and other public sector organisations, including organisational, geographic and operational datasets.
Published tenders, contracts, awards, expenditure and transaction data from central and local public sector sources.
Regulatory and statutory information, public registers, strategies, reports, meeting minutes, news, publications and other legitimately available information.
We do more than simply aggregate information. Data is researched, combined and processed to make it more consistent, connected and useful.
Oscar and PSN incorporate, research and analyse information from a wide range of sources to build and maintain our public sector intelligence and data services.
Our information is derived from a combination of Oscar's own research, information published by UK government departments, public bodies and other public sector organisations, regulatory and statutory sources, public registers, and other legitimately available information.
This includes, among other sources, organisational and contact information researched and maintained by Oscar; published procurement, tender and contract information; expenditure and spend data; regulatory and statutory information; organisational structures and changes; and publicly available news, reports, meeting minutes, strategies, plans and other published material.
Where applicable, this information contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 .
PSN and Oscar bring together information from a large number of sources and may research, verify, standardise, categorise, match, aggregate, structure and enrich that information with Oscar's own data, research and analysis. We may also derive additional information, classifications and insights through the combination and analysis of these sources.
Because of the scale and number of underlying sources used across our services, it is not always practical to display individual source attribution alongside every data item. We therefore maintain source and attribution information centrally where appropriate.
The inclusion of information originating from a government department, public body, regulator or other organisation does not imply its endorsement of Oscar, PSN or our services.
Third-party material, regulatory information and other information not made available under the Open Government Licence remains subject to any applicable rights, licensing terms and conditions of the originating source.
Some news, procurement, contract, spend and other public sector information used within Oscar and PSN is made available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and is reused in accordance with those terms.
Oscar and PSN aggregate information from a large number of public sector information providers. Where it is not practical to provide individual source attribution alongside each item or record, we provide central information about the types of sources and licensing arrangements used across our services on this page.
View Open Government LicenceThe specific sources used within Oscar and PSN evolve over time as public bodies publish new data, services and information. Principal source categories include:
We work continuously to maintain accurate and useful information. If you believe information within Oscar or PSN is incorrect, outdated or requires clarification, please contact us so that our research team can review it.
