Book Description

The Ordnance Survey has existed for 216 years as a publicly funded and managed agency of government. It became a Trading Fund, then an Executive Agency in 1980s and 1990s, and is now overseen by the Department for Communities and Local Government. The Survey though ceased to be publicly funded in October 2006, and since that time is required to make a profit and so engage in commercial competition. This in turn raises the question of whether such a dominant organisation can operate fairly in the information market. A previous report (HCP 481, session 2001-02, ISBN 9780215003812), concluded that there needed to be defined boundaries between public service and national interest work. The Communities and Local Government Committee has set out 12 conclusions and recommendations, including: now that Ordnance Survey is self supporting, both funding its public task and commercial work entirely from its own revenues, the distinction between public duty and commercial interest is no longer clear; the Committee believes that the Surveys' annual report and accounts should distinguish between its public and private tasks; that the Survey needs to co-operate with the private sector in regard of licences that cover intellectual property rights, particularly if the licence is too stringent in its' requirements, such as requiring competitors not to compete with the Survey; greater clarity is needed on what use can be made of data bought from the Survey and that licensing conditions appear to be too complex and inflexible.