Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) questions and answers

Geospatial data, which is data linked to location, underpins Britain’s public services such as emergency planning, building our homes, protecting our environment, supporting our transport and helping our security services to keep us safe.

Any public sector organisation from health and emergency services, town, parish, and community councils through to central government departments can sign up to the PSGA via Ordnance Survey to get access to the data available and use it to help make better strategic decisions, decisions around planning and to support the accurate delivery of critical services.

You can register to be a member of the PSGA in a few simple steps:

1. Find out if your organisation is already a PSGA member Your organisation might already be able to take advantage of the full range of OS data and services under the PSGA. Check if your organisation is a member.

2. Review the PSGA member licence The PSGA member licence sets out the terms of what you, as a public sector organisation, can and can't do with the data you are licensed for and can get access to. View the PSGA member licence (PDF).

3. Complete the form to register for the PSGA You will be asked to check your eligibility before applying and will then need to complete a form with your details.

Make sure your answers are as accurate as possible – missing info or errors could delay your application.

Membership of the PSGA, including access to data and support, is free at the point of use to all eligible public sector organisations in England and Wales. Scottish Government will review applications by Scottish public sector organisations on a case by case basis.

Please refer to the PSGA member licence (PDF) for details of the PSGA terms and conditions.

Each PSGA member needs to have a Principal Contact within their organisation to manage their membership of the PSGA. The role includes:

• Acting as the primary point of contact for your organisation for Ordnance Survey data related matters.
• Managing the process for sharing data with contractors and other third parties.
• Representing your organisation in relation to the PSGA with Ordnance Survey, as required (for example, to raise issues or highlight new requirements).
• Managing your organisation’s information and additional colleagues’ access and rights to the PSGA members’ area and the OS Data Hub.
• Notifying Ordnance Survey if your organisation's existing Principal Contact changes, or if contact details need updating.
• Receiving all communications relating to the PSGA from Ordnance Survey and the Geospatial Commission, including newsletters and other communications, and distributing to relevant interested parties within your organisation.
• Being available where appropriate to represent your organisation at Ordnance Survey and Geospatial Commission events.
• Have the option to contribute to the User Acceptance Testing of early years key deliverables in conjunction with the Geospatial Commission.

Contact us for direct help with your PSGA membership.

PSGA members can discover and access OS location data, including addressing data, topographic data describing the physical features of the UK, highways, and much more - using the OS Data Hub.

The OS Data Hub is our data platform, it provides PSGA members the data you need in the format you choose to work with. Data can be downloaded, and where possible, APIs can be integrated with user software to enable direct access and allow your organisation to realise the benefits of OS data quicker and more cost effectively.

Visit the OS Data Hub

Any OS Data Hub user within a PSGA member organisation can view and download data packages for their organisation. Your OS Data Hub account Admin will be able manage access rights for users within the organisation.

PSGA members have access to the full breadth of OS’ world-leading geospatial data.

OS OpenData and Premium data sets, and APIs, provide detailed and accurate base maps and topographic data as well as water and road networks, greenspace and addressing data and much more in the format you need to work with. 

Our PSGA product summary (PDF) provides a helpful overview of data sets you can download and the APIs available to PSGA members. 

An API is a way of sending data through the internet and offers a more efficient alternative to download as you don’t have to spend time managing large datasets and always have the most up to date view. To access our data using OS APIs you simply need to copy the link provided in the OS Data Hub and paste it into your GIS (Geographic Information System). 

Please refer to the OS Data Hub plans page for details of limits to the data you can use. 

We allow PSGA members to share OS data with other PSGA members, and offer a number of licenses for PSGA members to share OS data with third parties to support collaboration and the delivery of core services. You can find out more on our public sector licensing guide page.