fe4d7be0_nance_Survey_official_response__The_Ordnance_Survey_replies___
[The Guardian says...] Britain’s public sector information is held by some 400 government departments, agencies and local authorities. Assets range from wills dating back to 1858, house values recorded in the Land Registry, maps and the risk of flooding to individual homes. Much is of great commercial interest, especially when it can be presented on innovative websites such as upmystreet.com. These sets of data are the modern crown jewels - but instead of treating them as a resource to boost national wealth, the government locks them up, restricting access to those who pay.
More organisations are using more geographic information in more ways than ever before, and that is largely due to the success of Ordnance Survey as a trading fund. We are providing a platform for a growing number of small businesses to make money by exploiting our data as partners. Like other public sector bodies, we comply with the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2005. As a trading fund with delegations from the Controller of HMSO to manage the licensing of Crown copyright, Ordnance Survey is also a member of OPSI's Information Fair Trader Scheme. This independently verified scheme ensures that we meet certain standards of openness, fairness and transparency, but in fact, we go beyond this in many ways. For example, we make available a free OS Explorer Map for every 11-year-old in Britain. In the past four years, more than three million free maps have been made available through this initiative. In addition, anyone can download free extracts of small-scale mapping direct from the Get-a-map facility on our website — www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk.
Free Our Data: Articles: the Ordnance Survey official response
The Ordnance Survey replies...