Data portals

Unlock the social value of public and private data

You want your published data to be easy to use.

Publishing open data is worthwhile not just to meet regulatory requirements, but also to enable innovation in accordance to your mission. However, publishing static datasets alone falls short:

  • Each dataset requires redundant infrastructure.
  • Every user must repeat the same transformation work.
  • High friction means valuable ideas may never get off the ground.

tap transforms your static datasets into data services ready for integration.

tap helps you remove the duplication of effort and enables innovation on top of your data by turning your datasets into services that benefit everyone, from small community projects to large enterprise systems. Treating your data as a service transforms it into reusable building blocks.

Open laptop with tap running on it

Case study: Scottish Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) data

The context

Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) provide energy efficiency information and specifications, such as floor area and materials used, for a dwelling. We were building an energy savings calculator for properties across UK, for which we required EPC data based on address lookup.

The problem

While England and Wales has an API that returns EPC data from address lookup, Scotland publishes the data as CSV files only. The data files are a ZIP of 18 CSV files totalling 7.17 GB. We needed to be able to lookup certificates based on addresses performantly across this data.

Screenshot of epcdata.scot statistics map

The solution

Using tap we:

  • Cleaned and standardised address data and field naming conventions.
  • Deduplicated the data to only return latest certificate for an address.
  • Enhanced compatibility by mimicking the England & Wales EPC API structure.
  • Enabled performant geospatial queries through enrichment with ONS postcode lookup data and H3 indexing.
  • Secured access with API key authentication while maintaining accessibility.
  • Serve the complete dataset with various filtering with sub-100ms response times.

The API is publicly available via the epcdata.scot data portal.

The impact

epcdata.scot is used both by us and external organisations that came across our data portal when looking for an API for EPCs. It enables focusing on user value rather than the labourous process of data transformation and building out a data service around the EPC dataset.

Rather than forcing each user to solve the same data challenges, the API provides reusable building blocks that eliminate duplication and accelerate innovation. It supports use cases, such as energy savings calculators, lead generation, property research and climate policy.

tap targets the initial “data accessibility” problem by automating the creation of ready-to-use data services, eliminating the need for costly transformation projects or complex, intrusive platforms. This approach enables a pricing model that makes innovation accessible to organisations and teams of all sizes.

Office full of people (from Unsplash)

Do you have any static data you want to turn into a service?

Whether you're a government department aiming to increase the impact of your open data, a research institution sharing datasets with the community, or an organisation with valuable private data, tap manages the technical complexity so you can focus on your mission.

Talk to our team