Guidance
How to access Natural England's maps and data
Find out the best way to download and use Natural England's data relating to the natural environment.
Natural England makes much of its data available to planners, developers, land managers and academics to help with decisions and support sustained environmental improvements. The data can be viewed or downloaded for use in a geographic information system (GIS).
Interactive mapping and data download from Magic
The Magic website provides interactive mapping of the natural environment from across government. You don’t need specialist software and can access maps using a standard web browser. See T1 in the Magic FAQ for browsers that are supported.
Magic also provides dataset listings and options for existing data download services. The Magic download facility allows you to download directly from the Magic web page or link to another website where the responsible authority holds their data.
Natural England’s data
The
provides information about the data and its availability:-
you don’t need to submit a data request if data is publicly available - to download click the link in column F
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when you download the data you are provided with a link to the licence for that dataset - note the copyright acknowledgement text to use on maps
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to find data that isn’t publicly available, filter column C to “Available on request for projects meeting Natural England’s core purpose” and make a data request following the instructions in Contractors and partners using geographic data
Data available on data.gov.uk
See the Natural England data products available on data.gov.uk. Each record includes links to download the data and further information.
Open Data
Pre-defined searches on data.gov.uk for Natural England’s Open Data:
- All Natural England data
- All Natural England data: spatial GIS datasets
- Access datasets
- Climate change datasets
- Designation datasets
- Habitat datasets
- Species datasets
- Marine datasets
- Land management scheme datasets
Published under Natural England’s terms of use
Pre-defined searches on data.gov.uk for data published under Natural England’s terms of use.
- All Natural England data
- All Natural England data: spatial GIS datasets
- Access datasets
- Climate change datasets
- Designation datasets
- Habitat datasets
- Species datasets
- Marine datasets
- Land Management scheme datasets
Contact Natural England
For further information on:
- downloading and finding data from the Magic website or the list of data supplied by Natural England (MS Excel Spreadsheet, 231KB) email: naturalenglandgidatamanagers@naturalengland.org.uk
- using data for commercial purposes which are only available under Natural England’s terms of use email: enquiries@naturalengland.org.uk
- Natural England’s marine data email: marinegidata@naturalengland.org.uk
- Natural England’s earth observation data and available services email: earth.observation@naturalengland.org.uk
- agri-environment scheme reporting requests email: schemes.reporting@naturalengland.org.uk
Contractors and partners using geographic data
Follow the process below if you are a contractor recently awarded a contract with Natural England or working in a partnership with Natural England.
Make a data request
- download and complete the Natural England contractors’ and partners’ work request form
- download and complete the by selecting the datasets in column D
Select the required licence for your data request
The data spreadsheet above describes the contractors’ licences required for each set of data available. Fill out all details highlighted in yellow in the appropriate licence documents.
Send the data request by email
Email the work request form, the data spreadsheet and associated licence(s) to naturalenglandgidatamanagers@naturalengland.org.uk.
Next steps
Natural England will make sure your application is an authorised use of the data with the correct licence(s) in place and send you the appropriate data or register you for the partner data catalogue - where you can select and download the data you need.
Geographic data supply service standards
Natural England is committed to excellent customer service when supplying geographic data or responding to enquiries. Natural England’s data managers have service standards where they commit to:
- respond to your initial email within 10 working days
- send data within 10 working days of receipt of the work request form, data spreadsheet and licence(s) for data that is on the DataShare website or owned/held by Natural England
- be helpful and properly trained to deal with your request
- making sure you receive data in a timely way
- inform you of other services where geographic data is publicly available
- inform you of any delays, if there is a high demand for data
Note: data not owned or held by Natural England may take longer to supply than suggested above.
In return, Natural England expects that:
- the person at the organisation who uses the data supplied is the person who reads and completes the work request form and licence(s)
- the correct acknowledgements/copyright are used for data depending on which licence is used
- the work request form and licence agreement is returned within 10 working days of receiving it
- hard drives with data are returned promptly and within 5 working days
- the job number is quoted in all correspondence so it can be referenced quickly
- on receipt of data you will confirm within 5 working days that:
- you have received all the data you expected
- the data opens and displays correctly
- the data request can be closed
Note: if all information is not received within the timescales above the job will be archived. If the work request form and licence(s) are sent after 10 working days, the job will be reactivated, but will be placed in a queue.
Terms and conditions for use of data
Natural England has made many of its geographic datasets available under the Open Government Licence (OGL).
The OGL is designed to give anyone - businesses, individuals, charities and community groups - a perpetual licence to re-use public sector information for either commercial or non-commercial use without having to pay or get specific permission.
The relevant licence is stated in the record on data.gov.uk along with any special licence conditions or acknowledgements. Natural England no longer publishes data under separate OGL documents.
If constraints such as third party intellectual property rights do not allow the use of the OGL the data will be published under Natural England’s
.Last updated 6 June 2016 + show all updates
- Added set of pre-defined searches for Natural England data on DATA.GOV.UK.
- First published.