Which districts have been recoded by the Royal Mail?

Summary

Districts recoded (partially or completely) in the past nine years are given below. Identical old and new postcodes indicate recoding within a district or changes to the locality information. Changes affecting just one postcode are not listed here. This information is just a brief summary: full details are given in the appropriate Royal Mail Postcode Update book.

Solution

What are postcode recodes?

When do recodes happen?

Can I still use old postcodes?

Solution

Postcode Update 47 (summary of changes from April 2008 to September 2008) included no major Postcode and address changes.  There were six minor locality changes / corrections and 506 new dedicated PO Box sectors.

Postcode Update 46 (summary of changes from October 2007 to March 2008) included no major Postcode and address changes.  There were some minor locality changes / corrections and thirty five new dedicated PO Box sectors.

Postcode Update 45 was applied in September 2007 (Q4 2007). There were no major Postcode and address changes.  However, there were some minor locality changes and corrections, as well as 2 new sectors introduced for dedicated PO Boxes.

Postcode Update 44 was applied in March 2007 (Q2 2007). There were no major Postcode and address changes, just some minor locality changes & corrections

• One new dedicated PO Box sector (GU 21 9) has been introduced for all future PO Boxes in Woking  areas GU21 & GU24
• A new Postcode sector (DE24 1) has been introduced to provide for new development in Derby

Postcode Update 43 was applied in September 2006 (Q4 2006). The main changes due to this update are to the following localities:

Postcode Update 42 was applied in March 2006 (Q2 2006). The main changes due to this update are to the following localities:

Postcode Update 41 was applied in September 2005 (Q4 2005). This was a small update. Minor changes were applied to 4 localities and 22 new postcode sectors were added.

Postcode Update 40 was applied in March 2005 (Q2 2005). No major postcode or address changes were made except for minor locality changes and corrections. 595 new postcode sectors were introduced for PO Box addresses only. By allocating postcode sectors for PO Box addresses only, Royal Mail have reduced the need for major postcode and address changes in the future.

Postcode Update 39 was applied in September 2004 (Q4 2004).

Postcode Updates 37 and 38 did not include any major address changes. General information on recodes can be found after the table below.

Scottish Islands have moved from County field to Post Town Field, Post Towns on those islands have become Dependant Localities

Isle of Harris,
Isle of North Uist
Isle of South Uist
Isle of Barra
Isle of Arran
Isle of Cumbrae
Isle of Bute
Isle of Isley
Isle of Jura
Isle of Tiree
Shetland Islands

Isle of Man has been moved from County field to Post Town Field, and the Post Towns that were on Isle of Man have become Dependant Localities

Douglas
Laxey
Peel
Kirk Michael
Ramsey
Castletown
Ballasalla
Port St. Mary
Port Erin

Isle Of Man

What are postcode recodes?

Postcode recoding is the term used by the Royal Mail to describe changes to postcodes for certain addresses. They occur for one of two reasons:-

- a sector is running out of unused postcodes

- to aid the more efficient delivery of mail.

Rather than recoding each sector when necessary, recoding is carried out en masse, usually over a number of districts.

When do recodes happen?

Recodes now appear on PAF in March and September. No old postcode should be reused for at least two years.

Can I still use old postcodes?

As no old postcode should be reused for two years, letters with old postcodes will be delivered for up to a year, although this may take longer than normal. However, the new postcodes will be required for a PAF correct address and for Mailsort purposes.

QAS Rapid, Pro V3 and recent versions of Batch will automatically recode old postcodes (unless they have been reused). QAS Updater provides a stand-alone tool to perform this task.

Related links

Experian QAS Support Data zone website.

Royal Mail Postcode Updates website.