Data feeds, APIs & membership check
Terms of use
These terms apply to every data feed and API British Powerlifting publishes from this portal (listed here), and to the membership checker (web page) — together, "the services". "We", "us" and "British Powerlifting" mean GB Powerlifting Federation Ltd, trading as British Powerlifting. "You" means the person using a service and any organisation they use it for. By using a service you accept these terms. If you don't accept them, don't use it.
Last updated 1 November 2026.
In short
- The services are free and need no account. Stay within the rate limits and cache what you fetch.
- Show published information (athlete names, photos, results) in context, keep it up to date, and don't build profiles or marketing lists from it.
- Within a version (
/api/v1/…) we only add things. A breaking change gets a new version, with notice. - The membership check has extra rules: only check people who gave you their details for one of the listed purposes, tell them you'll check, and don't store results without their consent.
- Everything is provided as is: no endorsement, no guarantee, and any service can be changed or withdrawn at any time.
What these terms cover
- Competition feeds — national championships, their qualifying totals, key dates and, where a competition publishes them, its athlete lists (documentation).
- Meetings API — general meetings, their motions and aggregate results (documentation).
- Membership check — confirms whether someone is a current member, on the web page and through its API. Its own additional terms are below.
- Any other feed or API we publish under
/api/in future, unless it says otherwise.
The services publish only what the matching public pages already show. They are read-only (the membership check reads, and never changes, our records).
Fair use
You must not:
- exceed the published rate limits, or try to get around them, for example by spreading requests across many addresses;
- poll more often than the data can change — cache responses (the feeds say how long for) and fetch again when you need fresh data;
- interfere with, overload, probe or attempt to break the services or the portal behind them;
- use the services for anything unlawful, or harmful to British Powerlifting, its members or its athletes.
Please send a descriptive User-Agent header (your organisation or site, and a contact address) so we can get in touch before blocking anything that misbehaves.
Using published data
Some feeds include personal data that athletes and members have agreed to make public, such as names, photos, quotes and social links on a competition's athlete lists. You may display it, unaltered and in context, to show what the matching British Powerlifting page shows. You must:
- keep it current: refresh at least daily, and stop showing anything that has gone from the feed. People withdraw, ask to be listed by initials or remove their photo, and that must reach your copy too;
- link to photos using the URLs in the feed rather than copying them, so a removed photo stops showing;
- not combine it with other data to profile individuals, not use it for marketing, and not sell or republish it as a dataset;
- not present lists, standings or results as final or official where the feed says they are provisional, and not alter results;
- credit British Powerlifting as the source, and link back to the page the data came from where you reasonably can.
When you hold data from the services, you are responsible for handling it in line with data protection law, including the UK GDPR.
Versions and changes
Every API address starts with its version, for example /api/v1/competitions. Within a
version we only add things — new fields, new endpoints — and never remove or rename them, so
ignore anything you don't recognise. A breaking change gets a new version (/api/v2/…)
alongside the old one, announced on the data feeds & APIs page
with notice before the old one is retired. The addresses used before versioning still work for now,
but are deprecated: use the /api/v1/ addresses.
Membership check: additional terms
These extra terms apply when you use the membership checker (web page) or its API (documentation). The service lets you confirm whether a person holds a current British Powerlifting membership, and when it expires, using details about them that you already hold: at least two of their full name, email address and membership number. It is free.
What the service reveals, and what it doesn't
It only confirms what you already know. You'll see whether the details you entered match a current British Powerlifting membership, and when it ends. It never returns any member information you didn't enter yourself: no names, email addresses, membership numbers, dates of birth or anything else from our records. Trying to find out more won't work, and breaks the terms of use.
Every result is one of: active (with the date the membership runs until), expired (with the date it expired), or couldn't confirm. "Couldn't confirm" is the same answer whether nobody matched, one detail was wrong, or the membership isn't current for another reason, so it says nothing more about anybody.
Fair and ethical use
You must use the service fairly, ethically and only in the interests of the members you check. You must not:
- check anyone who hasn't given you their details for an authorised purpose, or who wouldn't expect you to check them;
- try to obtain any information about a member beyond whether their membership is current, or try to work out who is or isn't a member;
- guess, enumerate, or check people in bulk or from lists, or automate checks that aren't each prompted by a real person asking for a membership-related benefit or service;
- use results for marketing, profiling, building or enriching databases or lists, or any purpose other than the one the person gave you their details for;
- resell, publish, share or pass results to anyone else;
- try to get around the rate limits or other protections, for example by spreading requests across many addresses, or interfere with the service;
- use the service to discriminate against, harass or disadvantage anyone, or for anything unlawful or harmful to British Powerlifting or its members.
Data protection
When you use the service you are handling personal data about the people you check, and you must do so in line with data protection law, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
Who is responsible
You are an independent controller of the personal data you collect from people and of any results you keep. British Powerlifting is the controller of its own membership records. We are not your processor, and these terms don't create a joint-controller arrangement.
Lawful basis and transparency
- You must have a lawful basis for collecting the person's details and checking them with us.
- You must tell the person, before you check, that you will confirm their membership with British Powerlifting, for example in your sign-up form, checkout or privacy notice.
- You must only check people who have given you their details themselves for that purpose.
Keeping results
- Don't store results, or the details you checked, without the member's consent, unless another lawful basis clearly applies, such as keeping a record of a competition entry.
- Keep anything you do store only for as long as you need it for the purpose it was given, then delete it securely. A membership can lapse or be renewed at any time, so check again rather than relying on an old result.
- Collect and keep only the minimum you need (data minimisation).
Security
Keep the details you collect and any results secure, with appropriate technical and organisational measures, and only let people who need them have access.
People's rights
You are responsible for dealing with requests from people about the data you hold on them (for example access or erasure). Requests about British Powerlifting's own membership records should be sent to us.
What British Powerlifting does with the details you enter
- We use the details you enter only to carry out the check, then discard them.
- We don't store, log or share them, and we don't record who checked whom. We keep only anonymous daily counts of how many checks were made and their outcomes.
- To enforce the rate limits that protect members from misuse, we keep, for short periods only, your network address and an irreversibly scrambled form of each membership number, email address and name checked. These can't be turned back into the details you entered.
- See our privacy policy for how we handle members' data generally.
Misuse and breaches
If you become aware of misuse of the service, or of a personal data breach involving information you obtained through it, tell us promptly through our contact form, as well as meeting your own legal obligations.
Your promises to us
Each time you use the service, you confirm that:
- you are using it only for an authorised use, in line with these terms;
- the person you are checking gave you their details for that purpose and has been told you will check their membership with us;
- you have a lawful basis for the check, and you comply, and will keep complying, with data protection law;
- if you use the service on behalf of an organisation, you are authorised to accept these terms for it.
You are responsible for, and agree to make good any loss British Powerlifting suffers because of, your breach of these terms or of data protection law in connection with the service.
Accuracy of results
Our records are copied from the British Powerlifting membership system (Sport:80) once a day, so a new membership, a renewal or a lapse can take up to a day to show, and records can occasionally be wrong. Don't rely on a result as the only basis for an important decision. If in doubt, ask the person to show you their membership in Sport:80.
No endorsement
No endorsement. Using this service does not mean British Powerlifting endorses, approves or partners with you, your organisation or your offers. Please don't say or suggest it does, or use our name or logo that way. Any promotion you run is your own responsibility.
No warranty
The services are provided free of charge, "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent the law allows, we give no warranties, conditions or promises of any kind, express or implied, including about accuracy, completeness, timeliness, availability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Availability, suspension and withdrawal
We may change, limit, suspend or withdraw any service, change the rate limits, or block or stop any user, address or organisation from using one, at any time, for any reason and without notice. Your right to use the services ends automatically if you breach these terms.
Liability
As far as the law allows, British Powerlifting is not liable to you for any loss or damage, whether direct or indirect, in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise, arising from your use of or inability to use the services, or from relying on anything they return. Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability that cannot be limited or excluded by law, including for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.
General
- Changes. We may update these terms at any time by publishing a new version here. If you keep using the services, you accept the current version.
- Severability. If any part of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the rest still applies.
- Waiver. If we don't enforce a term straight away, we can still enforce it later.
- Law and courts. These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction.
- Contact. Questions about these terms, or want to use a service for something they don't cover? Contact British Powerlifting.