{
  "protocol": "verified-changes/0.1",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "Data Butler",
    "url": "https://databutler.dev/"
  },
  "updated": "2026-10-04",
  "coverageStart": "2026-08-31",
  "areas": [
    {
      "name": "uk-rates",
      "description": "UK tax-year rates and thresholds verified against gov.uk: income tax, National Insurance, minimum wage, student loans, VAT, ISA, pensions, stamp duty, capital gains, dividends, savings and marriage allowances, State Pension and State Pension age, statutory sick/maternity/paternity pay, Child Benefit.",
      "cadence": "Every 6 April (new tax year) and after each Budget or Autumn Statement; minimum wage on 1 April; every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "uk-exams",
      "description": "UK exam-board specifications verified against the boards' own pages: which topic sits on which paper, durations, marks, weightings. AQA GCSE sciences and maths so far.",
      "cadence": "Each September and on any published specification update; every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "vehicles",
      "description": "Official vehicle recall datasets: DVSA (UK), RappelConso (France) and MLIT (Japan) recalls and complaints; EU Safety Gate is a stub.",
      "cadence": "Monthly."
    },
    {
      "name": "software-eol",
      "description": "Support and end-of-life dates for 14 runtimes and operating systems (endoflife.date snapshot): dataset additions, new cycles, moved or reached end-of-life dates",
      "cadence": "monthly"
    },
    {
      "name": "policy-rates",
      "description": "Central-bank policy rates verified against the banks' own pages: Bank of England Bank Rate, US Federal Reserve federal funds target range, ECB key interest rates (deposit facility, main refinancing, marginal lending).",
      "cadence": "After each scheduled decision (eight a year per bank); re-verified within 45 days of verifiedDate; every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "us-rates",
      "description": "US federal rates and thresholds read from the IRS revenue procedures and notices and SSA's Federal Register notice: income-tax rate schedules and standard deduction, Social Security wage base and rates, Medicare, retirement-plan and IRA limits, HSA limits, estate and gift exclusions.",
      "cadence": "Annual: after the IRS tax-year inflation adjustments (October), the retirement-plan limits (November) and the SSA Federal Register notice (October/November); every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "de-rates",
      "description": "German tax and social-insurance figures read from the consolidated statutes, the Bundesgesetzblatt and the BMG/DRV/BMAS pages: Grundfreibetrag and § 32a tariff, Solidaritätszuschlag, Beitragsbemessungsgrenzen and Beitragssätze, Zusatzbeitrag, Mindestlohn, Geringfügigkeitsgrenze, Kindergeld, Kinderfreibetrag, Pauschbeträge, Entfernungspauschale.",
      "cadence": "Annual: after the Sozialversicherungsrechengrößen-Verordnung and the Zusatzbeitrag announcement (November), and any Steuergesetz changing § 32a EStG for the next Veranlagungszeitraum; every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "uk-vehicle-rules",
      "description": "UK vehicle tax (VED) and MOT rules verified against gov.uk: first-year rates by CO2 band, the standard rate, the expensive car supplement, 2001–2017 bands, pre-2001 engine-size rates, electric-vehicle rules since April 2025, historic-vehicle exemptions, MOT due dates, maximum fees, early renewal, retests, exemptions and penalties.",
      "cadence": "Every 1 April (VED rates and the historic-vehicle exemption date move with the Finance Act) and after each Budget; MOT fees and rules when DVSA changes them; every source page re-fetched weekly."
    },
    {
      "name": "uk-exam-dates",
      "description": "UK exam calendar facts verified against JCQ and the boards' own documents: GCSE and A-level results days, the summer exam timetable (JCQ window, contingency day, dates of the most-asked papers at AQA, Pearson Edexcel, Cambridge OCR, WJEC/Eduqas), entry deadlines and late-fee dates, Scotland's results day, and announced specification changes with first-teaching and first-exam years.",
      "cadence": "Annual, calendar-driven: when JCQ and the boards publish the following summer's final timetables (early in the calendar year) and the results days; the weekly watcher hashes the JCQ and board timetable pages"
    },
    {
      "name": "calendar",
      "description": "Public holidays (UK, US federal, German Länder, France), tax-year starts/ends (nine countries) and daylight-saving switch dates for 2026–2028: new years published, holidays added or moved, rule changes",
      "cadence": "monthly"
    },
    {
      "name": "uk-gov-process",
      "description": "UK government service facts verified against gov.uk: passport fees (UK and overseas), driving licence renewal and provisional licences, change of address, vehicle tax and SORN, voter registration, birth and death registration, Blue Badge, Self Assessment deadlines and Making Tax Digital, National Insurance numbers, Universal Credit, EU Settlement Scheme, eVisa and ETA — fees, processing times, eligibility, start URLs and dated changes.",
      "cadence": "Re-verified against the gov.uk pages every 30 days and on fee-change days (Home Office fees usually move in April); every source page re-fetched weekly through the gov.uk content API."
    }
  ],
  "endpoints": {
    "json": "https://databutler.dev/api/changes",
    "html": "https://databutler.dev/changes",
    "rss": "https://databutler.dev/changes.rss",
    "atom": "https://databutler.dev/changes.atom",
    "mcp": {
      "url": "https://databutler.dev/api/mcp",
      "tool": "what_changed_since"
    }
  },
  "schema": "https://databutler.dev/schema/changes.v0.json",
  "specification": "https://databutler.dev/protocol",
  "licence": "Free to reuse with attribution to databutler.dev. Each entry's underlying fact belongs to the linked official source and stays under that source's terms (for gov.uk, the Open Government Licence v3.0).",
  "contact": "https://github.com/physics-star-cat/databutler/issues"
}