In April, Ordnance Survey (OS) digital maps should be available for free as announced last November by the prime minister who promised that the OS “will open up its data relating to electoral and local authority
boundaries, postcode areas and mid scale mapping information. The
Government will consult on proposals to make data from Ordnance Survey
freely available so it can be used for digital innovation and to
support democratic accountability.” Beginning last December there has been a public consultation run by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG), to which the OS reports, to discuss which maps should be made available for free, what free means, and how to pay for it. The public consultation ended last week. The three options considered by the DCLG include
- No change, the OS would remain a Trading Fund, a wholly government owned profit making entity similar to a crown corporation in Canada
- All of OS’s digital data available for free, meaning with an attribution-only license allowing derivative works and at no cost
- Some of OS’s digital maps available for free
It has been suggested that option 2 will cost the taxpayer about £50 million, half of the £100 million it costs to run the OS, because half of the OS’s revenue comes from the public sector. Option 3 is estimated to cost less, on the order of £20 million. The Free Our Data campaign has argued that the gross benefit to the UK economy, estimated to be £168 million a year by one study, of free data exceeds the direct cost to the government. Within a few weeks we should know which of these options HM Government intends to adopt.
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