The UK government has announced a 10-year ‘Public Sector Geospatial Agreement’, delivered by Ordnance Survey, to increase location data available to the public sector
The Geospatial Commission is increasing the location data available to the public sector across England and Wales. Known as the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement, it will be delivered by Ordnance Survey and will start from 1 April 2020
Geospatial data, which is data linked to location, underpins the UK’s public services such as emergency planning, building homes, protecting the environment, supporting transport and helping security services keep us safe.
Any public sector organisations ranging from health and emergency services, town, parish, and community councils through to central government departments can sign up via Ordnance Survey to use the data, free at the point of use.
Improved access to mapping data
Director of the Geospatial Commission, Thalia Baldwin, said: “The Geospatial Commission was created in 2018 to make sure the UK maximises the opportunity location data presents for society, the economy and the environment.
“The new agreement meets our commitment to improve access to Ordnance Survey’s core data to start-ups, businesses and innovators.
“It means that the public and private sectors will have improved access to the accurate and detailed mapping data they rely on today to support even more innovative, efficient and effective delivery of public services.”
Chief executive of Ordnance Survey, Steve Blair, added: “We’re looking forward to delivering the new agreement and continuing to put OS data at the centre of decision making across the public and private sector.
“With this long-term investment, we can make our world-leading geospatial data even easier to access, use and share. It will enable us to capture and manage new levels of data which will support emerging markets, customers and innovation.
“Across Great Britain OS is helping to deliver value to thousands of customers, and I am looking forward to seeing how they will work with the new data to support their business and service delivery.
“I will be keeping an especially close eye on how new customers and start-ups innovate with the data to generate real economic value for Great Britain.”
From the 1 July 2020 businesses will be able to access, free up to a threshold, OS MasterMap data through a series of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs).
