Request for information - Ref No: FOI21983
Request
Thank you for your email of 17 February 2021, which is being considered by Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. We acknowledge your information request to be:
“Pertaining to government FOI request:
https:--www.whatdotheyknow.com-request-lists_of_historic_and_parent_upr
The government has been informed that "a single seat licence of AddressBase Core would cost £3,681.25 direct from Ordnance Survey".
Please could I confirm whether OS provided the government with this information during the production of the geoplace public dataset, and confirm that AddressBase Core can indeed be purchased for business use directly from OS at the aforementioned price, in line with the ICO's claims.”
Our response
I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold some of the information you have requested.
Our responses are set out below to the questions raised in your email: -
1. “Please could I confirm whether OS provided the government with this information during the production of the geoplace public dataset”
In relation to the Freedom of Information request you refer to in your email above, and more specifically, the following quote which is taken from GeoPlace’s response (dated 25 September 2020) to the request for internal review of the same FOI request:
"a single seat licence of AddressBase Core would cost £3,681.25 direct from Ordnance Survey",
I can confirm that Ordnance Survey was consulted by GeoPlace LLP and provided the information relating to the sourcing and pricing of AddressBase Core that is referred to in the above quotation.
(If this is not the information that you are requesting, please provide further explanation. In particular, please clarify what part of government you are referring to and what you mean by the “geoplace public dataset”.)
2. “confirm that AddressBase Core can indeed be purchased for business use directly from OS at the aforementioned price in line with the ICO's claims”
I can confirm that AddressBase Core can be purchased for internal business use direct from Ordnance Survey for the price of £3,681.25. Having said that, Ordnance Survey’s position on this has changed since GeoPlace’s response of 25 September 2020, such that we now encourage customers, save for those in the Energy and Infrastructure sector, to source this data from one of our network of licensed partners. For information on how to find a licensed partner, please see this webpage: Find a Business Partner | List of Ordnance Survey Partners.
Whilst OS cannot set prices for our partners, we are confident that AddressBase Core will be available (on a single seat basis) from partners for no more than £3,681.25. However, we can confirm that, if you are unable to source the data from a partner, at or below such price, you should contact Ordnance Survey and we would license the data to you directly.
In the last part of the sentence above you refer to “in line with the ICO’s claims”; please note that we are unaware of the ICO having made any claims as to the price of AddressBase Core or the means of sourcing AddressBase Core.
Internal review
Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000. If you are unhappy with our response, you may request an internal review with our Internal Review Officer by contacting them, within two months of receipt of our final response to your Freedom of Information (FOI) request, as follows:
Internal Review Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
Southampton
SO16 0AS
Please include the reference number above. You may request an internal review where you believe Ordnance Survey has:
- Failed to respond to your request within the time limits (normally 20 working days)
- Failed to tell you whether or not we hold the information
- Failed to provide the information you have requested
- Failed to explain the reasons for refusing a request
- Failed to correctly apply an exemption or exception
The Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the original decision. They will conduct an independent internal review and will inform you of the outcome of the review normally within 20 working days, but exceptionally within 40 working days, in line with the Information Commissioner’s guidance.
The Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision, provide an additional explanation of the exemption/s applied or release further information, if it is considered appropriate to do so.
Appeal to Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)
If, following the outcome of the internal review you remain unhappy with our response, you may raise an appeal, within three months of receiving our response, with the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Further information can be found on the ICO website (ico.org.uk) under ‘Report a concern’ or you may wish to call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113.