Free Coal Mining Data for England, Scotland, Wales
Summary
The Mining Remediation Authority updated its guidance on accessing free coal mining data for England, Scotland, and Wales held in the national coal mining database. The guidance describes map viewer and web mapping services available at no charge for property owners, planners, and developers to check coal mining risk areas, mine entries, and development constraints.
What changed
The guidance was updated to provide current information on accessing the Mining Remediation Authority's free coal mining data services. Key changes include updated URLs for web mapping services covering coal mining reporting areas, mine entries, development risk areas, and abandoned mine catalogues. The guidance explains how to use GIS software to analyse coal mining data against user data.
For property owners, developers, and planning authorities, this guidance provides tools to assess coal mining risks before purchasing property or commencing development. Users should note that data represents snapshots in time and should consult terms and conditions for acceptable use restrictions when incorporating this data into planning or property due diligence processes.
What to do next
- Access coal mining data via the Mining Remediation Authority map viewer
- Review terms and conditions on the map viewer splash screen
Archived snapshot
Apr 16, 2026GovPing captured this document from the original source. If the source has since changed or been removed, this is the text as it existed at that time.
Guidance
Free of charge coal mining information
How to access and use the coal mining information for England, Scotland and Wales held in the national coal mining database.
From: Coal Authority and Mining Remediation Authority Published 9 October 2014 Last updated 13 November 2025
— See all updates Get emails about this page Print this page The Mining Remediation Authority holds coal mining data in a national database. This provides information on past and present coal mining.
The map viewer and the web mapping services are provided free of charge.
Mining Remediation Authority map viewer
The Mining Remediation Authority map viewer allows you to view selected coal mining information in your browser graphically.
Reasons to use this information include:
- finding out if a property is affected by coal mining
- checking if your site is in a high risk area
- checking for coal and mine entries on or near the surface To check a particular location either enter a post code or use your mouse to zoom in to view the surrounding area.
Turning on selected data layers will let you see various coal mining data on top of the map. Clicking on any data points or areas will provide some further detailed information.
Terms and conditions of use are provided on the splash screen on the map viewer.
Please be aware that this data represents a snap shot in time from the national coal mining database which is regularly updated with new information.
Web mapping services
To analyse coal mining data against your own data you will need to use geographic information systems (GIS) software.
The datasets available are all raster images without details of individual features, see available Mining Remediation Authority data if you have more specific needs.
Enter the address of the dataset you want into your web mapping service client (tip: right click and copy shortcut).
- coal mining reporting areas (the areas in which the Mining Remediation Authority recommend a mining report): https://map.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/CoalAuthority/coalauthoritycoalminingreportingareas/MapServer/WMSServer
- mine entries (the centre point of only coal mine entries as derived from plans held by the Mining Remediation Authority): https://map.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/CoalAuthority/coalauthoritymineentries/MapServer/WMSServer
- development risk and coal resource areas (a combination of data layers relevant to planners, planning policy officers and asset managers): https://map.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/CoalAuthority/coalauthorityplanningpolicy_constraints/MapServer/WMSServer
- specific risk (more detailed information that, together, make up the development risk area data relevant to planners, planning policy officers and asset managers): https://map.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/CoalAuthority/coalauthorityspecificrisk/MapServer/WMSServer
- abandoned mines catalogue (a geographic catalogue of the plans of abandoned mines held by the Mining Remediation Authority): https://map.bgs.ac.uk/arcgis/services/CoalAuthority/coalauthorityabandonedmines/MapServer/WMSServer
Open Government Licence v3
The Mining Remediation Authority has made data sets available for use by third parties under the Open Government Licence v3:
- Mining Remediation Authority managed tips
- Mining Remediation Authority mine water treatment schemes Please contact us by email at datasolutions@miningremediation.gov.uk if you’re interested in licensing these data sets.
Available Mining Remediation Authority data
If you need full vector data, including feature details, then contact us at datasolutions@miningremediation.gov.uk to discuss your requirements. Pricing is worked out on an individual basis depending on the amount and type of data that is required.
Technical details of the available data, such as formats and coordinate systems, can be found in the coal mining data metadata documents.
Updates to this page
Published 9 October 2014 Last updated 13 November 2025 show all updates
1.
13 November 2025
Change to show only coal mine entries via WMS since August 2025
2.
29 July 2024
Link to Coal Authority map viewer updated from https://mapapps2.bgs.ac.uk/coalauthority/home.html to https://datamine-cauk.hub.arcgis.com
3.
30 September 2021
Removed dataset comprising Coal Authority monitoring points and licence areas
4.
17 August 2021
Update to the Interactive Map Viewer: 30 July 2021
5.
12 April 2018
The Coal Authority interactive map viewer data refreshed on 11 April 2018
6.
18 October 2017
The Coal Authority has made data sets available for use by third parties under the Open Government Licence v3.
7.
22 September 2017
Updated to show coal mining information that is available free of charge
8.
5 September 2016
Information updated under the interactive map viewer section.
9.
10 October 2014
Inclusion of INSPIRE compliant data available as a web mapping service.
10.
9 October 2014
First published.
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