What is PAF and why is it vital to UK businesses?

Counties are one of those quiet curiosities of UK addressing - the kind of data field that often sparks more debate than you’d expect. Should they be included? Which kind? And do we even need them anymore? As with so many things in data, the answer is: it depends. Three Counties, One Country In the UK, the word “county” doesn’t describe one single thing. It describes at least three - each with its own history, purpose, and quirk: Postal counties were once the backbone of the Royal Mail’s sorting system. They helped machines (and people) get mail to the right place efficiently. But in 1996, Royal Mail officially dropped them, and by 2010, county data was removed from the official address dataset entirely. For the postal system, counties simply no longer exist. Traditional (or historic) counties trace their origins back centuries — the counties of record, land, and local identity. They don’t match today’s administrative borders, but they persist in cultural memory and local pride. To some, these are the real counties of England. Ceremonial counties , meanwhile, are what most modern maps and local authorities recognise today. They loosely align with lieutenancy areas — the basis for everything from local government to BBC weather maps. And just to add another layer, the UK also has metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties used for administration, because nothing in British geography would be complete without a little complexity. So… Do We Still Need Them? For Royal Mail, the answer is simple: no. County names are ignored by modern sorting systems, and they don’t affect delivery. But in the real world of databases, integrations, and overlapping address systems, the answer is less clear-cut. Counties still appear because: Some legacy systems require a county field for validation. Some organisations and couriers still use them for regional routing. And sometimes, humans just like them — they help people orient themselves, especially in places with duplicate town names. It’s a reminder that addresses aren’t just for machines. They’re for people, too — and people often bring context, emotion, and memory into their sense of “place.” The Bigger Picture: One World, Many Formats  Counties are just one example of how geography, history, and technology collide in addressing. Every country — sometimes every region — does it differently. Some use regions, provinces, or prefectures. Some rely on hierarchies of towns and municipalities. Others have no subdivisions at all. For global platforms and data validation providers, that diversity creates a fascinating challenge: how do you standardise something that isn’t standard anywhere? It’s the quiet work of address intelligence — understanding not just where something is, but how people describe it. Why This Matters The goal of address accuracy isn’t to erase local identity or force uniformity; it’s to understand and support variation intelligently. Whether you’re sending a parcel, mapping customer data, or building systems that work across borders, knowing how and why these differences exist is part of getting the data right. So next time you’re faced with that little “County” field — think of it not as a relic, but as a reminder. Behind every address is a history, a structure, and a story. And understanding that story is where true data quality begins.

Fetchify is delighted to announce that we have enhanced our product portfolio with the launch of our data cleansing services designed to help companies remain compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), maintain accurate customer addresses, and limit financial and reputational losses resulting from lost parcels. Royal Mail’s Postcode Address File (PAF) sees over 1,000,000 changes to address data each year. Against the backdrop of GDPR regulations, which stipulate that customer data must be kept up to date, there is increasing pressure on organisations to maintain an accurate picture of their customer database at all times. Businesses failing to comply face fines of up to £17.5 million or four per cent of global annual turnover. Furthermore, with UK businesses losing an estimated £1.6 billion each year due to lost or undelivered parcels, and 50 per cent of customers abandoning a brand after one poor delivery experience, the stakes are increasingly high when it comes to maintaining accurate address details. Data Cleansing tackles this by checking the addresses companies have on file against the PAF, ensuring that every matched address is complete. Not only does the report help businesses maintain accurate records continually, but it also fills in missing details, such as street information and postcodes, and standardises entries to Royal Mail’s specific formatting. Fetchify’s latest service is expected to help retailers stay on top of their GDPR obligations, minimise failed deliveries, cut returns costs, and improve the customer experience. John Griffiths, Account Manager at Fetchify, comments: “Duplicate records cause confusion, missing data undermines marketing efforts, and incorrect formats lead to delivery and communication errors. Perhaps more compelling is the fact that businesses are legally required to maintain accurate details, so it’s imperative that they get it right. Data Cleansing will address all of these issues whilst streamlining the operational efficiency of companies that use it.”

A spotlight on Tracey Moir, Senior Business Development Manager at Fetchify