What this licence covers
Common Ground UK publishes certain civic data as a permanent public record. This includes the Accountability Gap (the recorded difference between public votes and parliamentary votes on the same question), aggregated and anonymised voting results, the People's Manifesto, and PMQs grading results.
This licence explains how that data may be used by journalists, researchers, campaigners, academics, public bodies, and members of the public. It does not cover the platform's design, code, branding, or editorial methodology, which remain the property of Common Ground UK Ltd and are addressed in our Terms of Use.
What is licensed
The following data is made available for reuse under this licence:
- Accountability Gap records, including the public agreement percentage, the parliamentary agreement percentage, the resulting gap, and the associated Hansard reference
- Aggregated, anonymised voting results for any published question, including demographic breakdowns where available
- The full text of the People's Manifesto and its supporting evidence
- PMQs grading results and the Leaders League Table
- Published letters sent to party leaders and the Speaker, and any replies received
What is not licensed
- Individual votes, sessions, or any data that could identify a specific person
- The Commons Brief text, Open Floor question drafts, or other editorial content, which remains the copyright of Common Ground UK Ltd unless explicitly stated otherwise
- The platform's name, logo, and branding, which may not be used to imply endorsement
- Parliamentary data sourced via the official Parliament API or Hansard, which remains subject to Parliament's own Open Parliament Licence
Terms of use
You are free to:
- Copy, publish, distribute, and transmit the licensed data
- Adapt the licensed data, including combining it with other datasets
- Use the licensed data for commercial or non-commercial purposes
Provided that you:
- Attribute the source. Any use of this data must credit Common Ground UK and, where practical, link to commongrounduk.uk
- Do not misrepresent it. Sample sizes, dates, and methodology notes published alongside the data must not be removed or obscured in a way that changes its meaning
- Do not imply endorsement. Use of this data does not imply that Common Ground UK endorses any product, campaign, party, or viewpoint
- Preserve the permanent record. Where you republish an Accountability Gap figure, you must not alter the figure, date, or Hansard reference
How to cite this data
When citing a specific Accountability Gap or result, we recommend including the question, the date the result was finalised, the sample size, and the reference number where one is published. For example:
"Common Ground UK recorded a 32-point Accountability Gap on [question], based on 1,240 public votes, finalised [date]. Source: commongrounduk.uk"
For commercial data licensing, including access to more granular demographic breakdowns and trend data not published on the public platform, see our Funding Transparency page or contact us directly.
Accuracy and liability
This data is provided as recorded at the time of publication. We make reasonable efforts to ensure accuracy, but Common Ground UK Ltd accepts no liability for losses arising from reliance on this data. See our Disclaimer for further detail.