What You’ll Get From This Guide
- Search the catalogue efficiently
- Use filters to narrow results
- Understand verification and restricted-access signals
Start With Keywords
Use a topic, geography, year, or document type to begin. Short search terms usually work better than full questions in version one of the help system.
If the first search returns too many results, add one more qualifier such as a county name, year, or format.
Steps
- 1Open the Search page.
- 2Enter a topic such as agriculture, budget, or household survey.
- 3Review the total result count before applying filters.
Video Slot
Quick search walkthrough
Walkthrough of the search flow from entering a query to previewing a dataset.
Refine Results
The filter panel is the quickest way to move from broad discovery to a shortlist. Combine organisation, theme, file format, and verified-data filters to reduce noise.
Tips
- • Use the verified filter when trust and review status matter.
- • Use file format filters when you need machine-readable data such as CSV or JSON.
- • Look at the organisation name if you want a specific publisher.
Understand Access Signals
Not every dataset is immediately downloadable. Openly licensed datasets show direct download actions, while restricted datasets show a Request Access path instead.
Verified badges indicate that the dataset has gone through an internal review process and includes supporting verification metadata.