This shapefile shows polygons where there is favourable geology for deep geothermal exploration in the UK and for the sedimentary basins, the areas have been considered in more detailed geothermal studies. Known areas of sedimentary basins or productive aquifers have been excluded, where they have not yet been evaluated for geothermal potential at any level of detail. The areas included are the whole sedimentary basin extents, or extents of granitic intrusions, as opposed to the smaller areas with heat-in-place or proved, recoverable resources over certain temperatures and depths. Coordinate Reference System is British National Grid. Northern Ireland data is also presented in British National Grid because of the UK extent of the information. Additional columns are as required to be supplied for inclusion in the GSEU project (https://www.geologicalservice.eu/). These include a ‘Geothermal Play Code’, ‘Geothermal Play Type’ ‘Plate Tectonic Setting’ ‘Geologic Habitat’ and ‘Geological Controls’ fields following the classification scheme of Moeck, I. S. (2014, Catalog of geothermal play types based on geologic controls. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 37, 867-882). Additional fields have been added for BGS for classification, colouring up. Full metatdata at: http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608258