fe4d7be0_nance_Survey_official_response__The_Ordnance_Survey_replies___
[The Guardian says...] [OS] says Nims is not a subsidy: "This is a contribution to the cost of mapping uneconomic areas." That makes sense - if you consider the geography of the United Kingdom to be a profit centre. But if you view it instead as belonging to its taxpayers, and meriting rigorous mapping for their benefit, there are no "uneconomic areas" - only places that people haven't started to use yet.
The private sector would not map the country as rigorously as Ordnance Survey. NIMSA covers tasks such as keeping the most detailed mapping of remote areas up-to-date - areas where such mapping is needed for public administration, including the delivering of emergency responses, but where there is little other demand. This work is carried out on a not-for-profit basis and is offering government increasingly good value for money due to cost efficiencies at Ordnance Survey.
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