So here’s the Ordnance Survey’s public task, for the record
Since we asked where the Ordnance Survey (OS) public task is, we’ve been pointed to it. (Thanks again, Dan.)
So we thought that, since it seems elusive elsewhere on the web, we’d put it here for the record. And for the record, this is extracted directly from the report of the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government. No doubt there’s some copyright issue, but we can’t quite see why acknowledging a source and repeating it correctly, in brief, is a problem, especially with an organisation that we (as citizens) own.
So here’s the PDF of the Ordnance Survey public task; and below, the HTML. If you spot any errors, please tell us and we’ll aim to correct them.
(From the written evidence to the Select Committee on Communities and Local Government, Fifth report of session 2007-8, printed January 21 2008)
Ordnance Survey’s Public Task is to:
— Collect and maintain uniform datasets with national coverage forming the official record of the natural and built environment of Great Britain, containing:
— detailed mapping of the built and natural landscape (topography);86
— high resolution address data;
— transport networks (including road, rail, waterways, tracks and paths);
— terrain and height data;
— administrative and electoral boundary information; and
— geographical names (including features with imprecise extents such as “Dartmoor”, “The Cotswolds”, “Forest of Bowland”, “South Downs” etc).
— Provide a nationally consistent cartographic portrayal of the topography of Great Britain at various scales including large scales.
— Maintain a definitive three-dimensional satellite-based geodetic87 reference framework of Great Britain that underpins the national datasets and facilitates the integration and analysis of location-based information from many sources.
— Make the content of the datasets widely available in forms that are accessible to customers of all types for wider benefit. This will be in the form of products which are the direct output of those datasets. As part of its Public Task and in order to fulfil its trading fund obligations, Ordnance Survey will charge all customers for the licensing and use of its products.
— Conduct its activities efficiently and effectively to maximise the broader economic value of its data, whilst complying with trading fund requirements.
— Ensure that its data is capable of supporting the principles underlying the Digital National Framework in underpinning the association and integration of third party geospatial information.
In order to fulfil its Public Task, Ordnance Survey is required to collect and maintain topographic data at the following scales:
— High Change Geographies88: 1:1250
— Rural Areas89: 1:2500
— National cover: 1:10000, 1:25000, 1:50000, 1:250000
The above datasets are required to fulfil Ordnance Survey’s Public Task to ensure that a comprehensive, nationally consistent version of each exists in the public interest.
Annex 1A sets out:
— Ordnance Survey’s datasets which fulfil its Public Task;
— the products that are currently the direct output of those datasets; and
— the rationale for including the various data within the Public Task.
The minimum levels of accuracy and revision required for those datasets are at Annex 1B.
The referencing systems and data collected and maintained by Ordnance Survey contribute to the development and integration of geographic and location based information collected and used by government, business and individuals.
As the National Mapping Agency of Great Britain, Ordnance Survey represents Great Britain overseas as experts on Survey, Mapping and Geographic Information. It provides a focus for the provision of public sector information into pan-European and international collaboration by National Mapping Agencies and the European Directive on the Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe (INSPIRE).
In discharging its Public Task, Ordnance Survey:
— Seeks to maximise both the accessibility of, and the broader economic benefit arising from the use of the data. It therefore creates products directly from these datasets and makes them available, including through commercial licensing, to government and business customers and consumers.
— Takes into account the views of customers (as well as, inter alia, technological changes and its trading fund requirements) to ensure that the range and content of these products meets their changing needs, and makes changes to content, accuracy and revision policies as may be necessary to ensure that the datasets and products remain fit for purpose. This may result in adding or withdrawing products from availability from time to time, as well as enhancing content andfunctionality.
Notes:
86 Topography: Including defining the surface shape and composition of the landscape, comprising both natural and artificial features.
87 Geodetic: Relating to the scientific discipline that deals with the precise measurement and representation of the earth, its gravitational field, and other related phenomena. Within Ordnance Survey geodetic-quality information forms the high precision framework that ensures the correct positioning of all mapping and other data against the National Grid.
88 Predominantly urban areas and areas of significant development.
89 Predominantly rural settlements and developed agricultural land.
- The following posts may be related...(the database guesses):
- Where is Ordnance Survey's public task set out, exactly? And why is it paying an external PR company? (updated) (12 May 2008; score: 30.87%)
- South Africa: mapping is free (and so is other government information) (4 March 2007; score: 23.45%)
- APPSI comes out in favour of Ordnance Survey on addressing - but it's two-edged (3 May 2007; score: 20.21%)
- Local council? Want to publish your data? Here's how (2 June 2010; score: 19.47%)
- How GIS reveals discrimination in urban planning (2 January 2010; score: 19.46%)
May 15th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I hope your publication of OS’s Public Task sparks the debate it deserves. This has been conspicuous by its absence so far. As far as I’m aware neither OS itself, the Shareholder Executive nor CLG (both of whom endorse OS’s new statement) have consulted openly with any external body.
This appears to include both OPSI, and APPSI who have previously had divergent views on OS’s public task, but are responsible for seeing whether the definition given means that particular datasets are subject to the Regulations on Public Sector Information. OFT are mentioned in OS’s full text, but don’t appear to have been involved in approving the new definition.
So what is the appropriate process for setting an organisations public task? It would seem quite reasonable that interested stakeholders, and industry experts, plus even (heresy, I know) the customers for a public body might at least be offered an opportunity for comment.
Had this been done then I’m sure some interested parties would have made some contribution to the debate. On addresses, for example, what do Royal Mail and local government make of the claim that they – Ordnance Survey – are collecting the “official record” on addresses. Local authorities have the statutory duty to set new addresses, and they cooperate with Royal Mail in the definition of postal addresses. Ordnance Survey contribute nothing to either of these address creation processes. They do add geo-coordinates, but only when RM inform them of new addresses.
How can OS claim to be the provider of the official records when they are dependent on another body for their base data? With Postcomms latest comments on a semi-privatised structure for Royal Mail, what guarantees has OS got on the continuity of this source?
As with many issues around the Free Our Data campaign, the withholding of information such as OS’s revised public task is symptomatic of the attitude that government – in particular Ordnance Survey – knows best.
DM
May 15th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Yes the Ordnance Survey’s Public Task as quoted here was obviously written for and by the Ordnance Survey!
May 15th, 2008 at 11:31 am
“As part of its Public Task and in order to fulfil its trading fund obligations, Ordnance Survey will charge all customers for the licensing and use of its products.”
Has this always been part of the OS’s Public Task? Or is this (or indeed the whole Public Task) new? I.e. what is the history of the requirement for the OS to charge all customers?
I hope that in the long run, either the OS will be required to reduce/drop its charges, or equivalent data will be generated by the FLOSS community, rendering the OS redundant.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am
@Sam: however, using OpenSpace is free, so either people using that aren’t “customers”, or it’s not an OS product. (OpenSpace postdates this iteration of the public task.)
Or maybe the web devs with that are customers and it is an OS product but the charge is 0. So it can be done….
May 15th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
[...] someone points out in the comments of this Free Our Data post, the definition of the Ordnance Survey’s public task was clearly written by the OS, I would suggest maybe even Vanessa Lawrence [...]
May 15th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
I agree with Ed Parson’s comments, on his blog, that every organisation would want to set out its own vision, and he comments rightly that private companies would do this in conjunction with their shareholders. OS will probably say that the Shareholder Executive in Government has fulfilled this scrutiny. But that misses the point…
Despite its obligations to make a profit (as a Trading Fund), OS is still a public agency. We expect public agencies, and government in general, to consult when it sets out its remit. We also don’t expect “turf wars� to break out as one government department claims ownership of a task run by another government department.
This shouldn’t be too much to ask of OS.
The purpose of public task has been made much more important in the area of public sector information, which the Free Our Data campaign highlights, because of the Regulations introduced to encourage the re-use of Public Sector Information, since 2005. OPSI and APPSI have roles to safeguard public interests in PSI, and they haven’t been asked for views on OS’s new statement.
Lets at least do things the things that government needs to do in the open where they can be scrutinised by all of us. After all – as Gordon Brown and his cabinet have recently started to chorus – they are on the voters side!
DM
May 15th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
@Charles: “OS OpenSpace is a free Ordnance Survey service” – that’s from the OpenSpace FAQ. Is OpenSpace violating the OS’s own Public Task?
If “customer” = one who is charged a fee, then the sentence I quoted above from the Public Task is tautological and hence redundant. If the charge is 0, then OS will not make a profit on the transaction. Profit-making is not mentioned explicitly in the Public Task, but Dan Macdonald mentions profit-making in his post as though it were a general requirement on Trading Funds. Is it?
All this said, the OpenSpace charge isn’t 0 unless your usage is modest and non-commercial. That seems to give the lie to the claim that it’s a “free” service. But there’s worse news still from a free-as-in-speech point of view:
“When you use OS OpenSpace to geocode data by adding geographical attributes to it that have been accessed from and/or made available by Ordnance Survey then the resulting data is considered to be derived from Ordnance Survey Data.”
Now, the Ordnance Survey makes latitude and longitude data available. So according to this FAW, if I, on my own private system, geocode my photos with latitude and longitude then they become “derived from Ordnance Survey Data” even if I actually obtained the latitude and longitude information from some other data source entirely.
It is clear that the OS has either:
(i) not adequately considered the ramifications of its stance, or
(ii) is adopting an intentionally hypocritical, anti-free stance.
Either way, it’s a poor show.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:38 am
The OFT, OPSI and APPSI, have all expressed concerns about the definition of Public Task. These have been reinforced recently by the Cambridge Study commissioned by the Treasury.
By introducing a new Public Task without consultation, Ordnance Survey lays itself – and its Minister whose endorsement it has obtained – open to accusations that it is using its position within government to seek inappropriate commercial advantage.
Setting the appropriate boundaries of Public Task is undoubtedly quite complex. Given its commercial interest in the outcome, I wonder if Ordnance Survey should properly have a central involvement in the process at all.
May 19th, 2008 at 11:18 am
Are we expecting any light from the long-awaited Location Strategy? The CLG department has just told me: “We will publish our new Location Strategy for the United Kingdom shortly.�
Breath-holding inadvisable, I suspect.
m