Nominet UK

Nominet UK is currently delegated by IANA to be the manager of the .uk domain name. Nominet directly manages registrations directly under .uk, and some of the second level domains .co.uk, .org.uk, .sch.uk, .me.uk, .net.uk, .ltd.uk and .plc.uk.

Nominet UK
Formation24 May 1996 (1996-05-24)
TypeNonprofit
Legal statusCompany Limited by Guarantee
Location
  • Oxford, United Kingdom
Region served
United Kingdom
ServicesccTLD registry, cyber security
Membership (2020/21)
2500
Chair
Andy Green
CEO
Paul Fletcher (effective February 2022)
Elected Non-Executive Director
Simon Blackler
Elected Non-Executive Director
Ashley La Bolle
SubsidiariesNominet US Inc.
Websitewww.nominet.uk

Nominet also manages the .wales and .cymru domains.

As of February 2021, the .uk register held 10,922,477 .uk domain names. This represents a year on year downward trend, when compared to February 2020, this is mainly due to lapsing of the recently launched .uk domain names.

Nominet was founded by Dr. Willie Black and five others on 14 May 1996 when its predecessor, the "Naming Committee" was unable to deal with the volume of registrations then being sought under the .uk domain. Nominet is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee. It has members who act as shareholders, but without the right to participate in the profits of the company. Anyone can become a member, but most members are internet service providers who are also registrars.

Customers wishing to register a domain can approach Nominet directly but will generally register the domain via a domain registrar – a business entity authorised by Nominet to register and manage .uk domains on behalf of customers. Registrars for .uk domains were formerly known as "tagholders".

Nominet also deals with disputes about registrations of .uk domain names, via its Dispute Resolution Service (DRS) which is similar to the UDRP system used for generic Top Level Domain Names, but with certain innovations such as a free mediation service.

In 2008 Nominet launched a charitable foundation, the Nominet Trust, and contributed some of its profits to it. In May 2018 Nominet relinquished control over the organisation, which was renamed Social Tech Trust and announced a "strategic partnership with Social Tech Business". By 2020 the income of Social Tech Trust had fallen to £99,000 from £5.6 million in 2018.

In February 2021 over 140 members requested an extraordinary general meeting to vote on removing five board directors, including the chair, and to appoint Michael Lyons, former Chairman of the BBC, and Axel Pawlik, former Managing Director of RIPE NCC. The EGM was held on 22 March 2021 and the five directors were removed. Rob Binns, a former Group Treasurer at HP Inc. and then CFO at The Access Group, was appointed as acting chair.

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