It is increasingly common for couples to live together without having the same surname. Typically the telephone number will be registered under only one of their surnames, and so the second person would become invisible under normal tele-appending requests. As part of our electoral roll verification process, once we have confirmed the residency of your record, we check to see if there are any other persons registered at the address (co-habitees). If we are unable to find a telephone number in your record's name we then check to see if there are any telephone numbers registered to co-habitees and return these instead.
A DPS is a two character code that identifies each premise that can receive mail in the country. Combined with the Postcode it is a unique identifier for a letterbox.
If an individual is registered as DE on BT OSIS then this is a normal entry that is available to the 118 operators, bureaux like ourselves and in the printed phone books. Around 54% of the records on BT OSIS are DE.
If an individual is registered as DQR on BT OSIS then they have given permission for their details to be given out by using the 118 operators and bureaux like ourselves, but have restricted themselves from being printed in the phone books. About 3% of the records on BT OSIS are DQR.
Many of the files we match against have options as to what level of match is required. Forename Level ensures that the forename, surname and address match. This provides a very secure match but does restrict the number of matches you can make if many of your records do not have a full forename. The other levels are Surname Level and Initial Level.
Many of the files we match against have options as to what level of match is required. Initial Level ensures that the initial, surname and address all match. In addition, there can be no conflicting information - for example, Mr John Smith and Ms Jane Smith have the same initial but it would be wrong to say that they are the same person. This level provides a good match but it is not always possible to be absolutely sure that the same person has been matched. The other levels are Forename Level and Surname Level.
Many of the files we match against have options as to what level of match is required. Surname Level just ensures that the surname and address match. This can be useful in many situations where confirming the family name is important. The other levels are Forename Level and Initial Level.
Some services are affected by the decision to Suppress or Flag matching records. There are two reasons that we have to ask this question: a) It costs more money to append a permanent flag to your data than it does to suppress goneaway records on a one-off basis. b) Some people prefer to have matching goneaways or duplicates removed so that the resultant file they download will be ready to be mailed. If you choose Append Flags then you will get individual flags indicating where your records match the relevant services; this will all be explained in the file format document that you get sent when the cleansed data is downloaded. If you choose to suppress matching records then you will not get any flags but the records that match will be removed from your resultant file; with suppression the Goneaway, deceased, MPS and deduplication results will be suppressed if purchased.
If an individual is registered as XD on BT OSIS then we do not have the telephone number for that person. However, we can confirm that the person is Ex-Directory therefore validating the fact that the record you have is still valid. Around 44% of the records on BT OSIS are XD.