Glossary

The terms used across our data, downloads and documentation, in alphabetical order.

Collection

A bundle of source registers put together for one purpose, such as Crown Default (everything we publish), Consolidated sanctions, Politically exposed persons, Debarment and enforcement, or Maritime. Each collection has its own page, its own bulk files and its own index file, and search can be limited to one collection.

Coverage and freshness

For each register we record when it was first loaded, when it was last loaded and how often it is meant to be refreshed. Every figure on this site carries an “as of” date: the most recent load it reflects. A register whose last load is older than its refresh interval is stale; a register whose publisher has stopped publishing keeps its last records with their dates. See Freshness.

Distinct entity

Records counted once when they share a cleaned name and a birth date. A rough measure of how many different parties a collection covers: it undercounts parties with common names and overcounts parties whose records spell the name differently or give no birth date. See How records are merged.

Entity

One object in our data model: a person, company, organization, vessel, aircraft, unclassified party, or the listing (Sanction) that names one of them. Entities have a schema, an ID and properties. See Entity structure.

Entity ID

The shared ID (crown-e- plus a UUID) of records we believe describe the same party across registers. Called canonical_id in our files and entity_id in the API. See Identifiers and deduplication.

Entity of interest

A party that is in our data without being sanctioned: a politically exposed person, a debarred contractor, the subject of a tax warrant or insolvency notice. Being in our data is not a finding of wrongdoing. To see why a party is included, open its record: the listings section names each register and programme, and the topic gives the kind of list. See also Inclusion criteria.

Politically exposed person (PEP)

A person who holds or has held a prominent public function, such as a minister, legislator, senior judge or senior official of a state-owned body, and who is therefore at higher risk of involvement in corruption. Many laws, including Canada’s anti-money-laundering rules, require extra checks for PEPs. Our PEP records carry the topic role.pep. See the PEP collection and PEP coverage.

Programme

The legal regime under which a listing is made, such as a country schedule under Canada’s Special Economic Measures Act or an OFAC programme. Held in the program property of the listing, as published. See Sanctions programmes.

Record

One listing of one party in one register. The same person can have records in many registers; each has its own record ID (crown- plus a number).

Searchable

A record with a usable name, so that search and screening can find it. Almost every record is searchable; a record whose publisher gave no name is not.

Source register (dataset)

One list from one publisher, for example OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals list or Canada’s consolidated autonomous sanctions list. Other providers call this a dataset; in our files it is the datasets field. Every record names its register, and every register is credited to its publisher on All data sources.

Statement

One property value with its source and dates: “register X says entity Y has property P with value V”. See Statement data model.

Target

The party a listing is about, as opposed to the listing itself or details attached to it. In our entity files, parties carry "target": true and listings do not. Every party we publish today is a target, because we do not yet publish related parties such as owners or associates.

Topic

A short code that says why a party is in our data: sanction, role.pep, debarment or reg.action. See Risk topics.

Last updated 2026-10-04