Microproduct Data GuideBeginner

FCDO Foreign Travel Advice

Published UK government country travel advice for building a destination briefing with dated safety context.

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At a Glance

Difficulty
Beginner — comfortable for a first prototype
Size
Tiny · ≤0.001 GB
Formats
JSON
Access
API
API Key
Not Required
Provider
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Updates
Occasional
Last Verified
Sep 28, 2026
Source Type
Government Source
Data Terms
Open Government Licence v3.0; acknowledge Crown copyright and check third-party material.
  • Python Syntax Checked
  • Runnable Notebook

From Source to Product Signal

Test a Product Idea in Four Steps

The GOV.UK Content API returns structured advice for one country path. Start with Switzerland and inspect its update date; advice is not a guarantee of safety or a substitute for the full official notice.

1

Check the Setup

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • An internet connection
  • The requests Python package
2

Access the Data

  1. 1.Read GOV.UK's Content API documentation and reuse terms.
  2. 2.Fetch one country's published advice by its GOV.UK path.
  3. 3.Inspect the publication date and link to the complete advice.
Open Official Source
3

Run the Python Example

Install the packages, then run the notebook cell.

python -m pip install requests

import requests

url = "https://www.gov.uk/api/content/foreign-travel-advice/switzerland"
response = requests.get(url, timeout=20)
response.raise_for_status()
advice = response.json()
print(advice["title"], advice.get("public_updated_at"))
print("https://www.gov.uk" + advice["base_path"])
4

Test a Useful Signal

Build a Dated Country Briefing

Show a country advice link and its latest publication timestamp.

  1. 01Fetch one country record and keep its source path.
  2. 02Display its update date beside a link to the full advice.
  3. 03Explain that official advice can change after the cached snapshot.

Related Datasets

Dataset Details

UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office is a government source. Last verified 2026-09-28. Temporal coverage: current country advice.

Data Types

Text

Geography

Global

Formats

JSON

Provider

UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

Data Terms

Open Government Licence v3.0; acknowledge Crown copyright and check third-party material.

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