Governance | Our public task

Under the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), Ordnance Survey (OS) provides Great Britain’s national mapping services. We create, maintain and provide access to consistent, definitive and authoritative location data of Great Britain. Our expertise helps organisations to maximise the use, value and benefit of the data for the national interest and the public good.

Our public task means we:

Create, maintain and improve the National Geographic Database (NGD). This contains the data that describes the geography of Britain;
Provide access to the NGD with the public and private sectors;
Provide technical and customer support to maximise the use, value and benefit of the NGD;
Provide leadership, domestically and internationally, on best practice with regards geospatial data, standards and services; and
Maintain and develop the underlying physical infrastructure which is needed to support the capture and maintenance of the NGD.

The PSGA contract provides details of all of the activities we undertake to deliver our public task.

The National Geographic Database (NGD)

Creating and maintaining the National Geographic Database (NGD) is at the core of our public task. The NGD holds the location data that describes the geography of Great Britain, maintained to agreed accuracy, currency and coverage. This data is used across the public and private sectors to underpin a wide variety of products and services in the delivery of critical infrastructure and services – from blue lights to streetlights.

The NGD has these themes:

NGD theme	Definition of data available within the theme
Addresses	An address is a structured label, usually containing a property number, a street name, locality name and postal code. It’s used to identify a plot of land, a building or part of a building, or some other construction, together with coordinates indicating their geographic position.
Administrative and Statistical Units	Administrative and Statistical units are the geographical extent of administrative, legislative, regulatory, electoral, statistical, governance, service delivery and activity management areas.
Buildings	A Building is any roofed structure permanently constructed or erected on its site, for the protection of humans, animals, things, or the production of economic goods.
Geographical Names	Geographical Names provides orientation and identity to places. They are location identifiers for cultural and physical features of the real world, such as regions, settlements, or any feature of public or historical interest.
Height	The Height Theme describes the surface of the Earth relative to a vertical datum.
Imagery	Imagery is geo-referenced image data of the Earth's surface, from satellite or airborne sensors.
Land Cover	Land Cover represents the physical and biological cover of the Earth’s surface.
Land Use	Land Use is the current and future planned management, and modification of the natural environment for different human purposes or economic activities.
Structures	A Structure is any free-standing manmade construction, that is designed to stand permanently in one place and is not a building (for example, bridge, tank, mast, fence).
Transport Networks	Transport Networks are the suite of road, path, rail, air and water transport routes (ferry only) and their connectivity.
Water	The Water Theme covers the extent of all water features including rivers, lakes and marine features (and their connectivity).

Access and licensing

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), which is our shareholder, requires us to operate as a sustainably profitable commercial organisation, on a self-financing basis. Our delivery of the public task is therefore funded through a contract with the Geospatial Commission, which is part of Cabinet Office, the cost of which is offset by royalties returned by our partners. The current licensing model means we make the NGD available through numerous datasets and digital services, e.g. OS MasterMap Topography Layer and OS Maps API.

We provide access to this data:

Through our OS OpenData with a range of products available under the Open Government Licence;
Free at the point of use to members of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA) via different datasets and digital services; and
Under commercial terms, where not covered by the above, to OS’ licensed partners and to end users.

Find out more about our licensing.

Our licensing model is a recognised exception to the principle of marginal cost pricing. You can read more about this in The National Archives' 'Guidance on public task statements’ (May 2020).

Datasets and digital services

Approval and review

This statement describes our current public task for the purposes of the Re-Use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 (the Re-use Regulations).

Approval

Prior to publication this statement has been discussed with and approved by the Geospatial Commission.

Review

Our public task statement was last reviewed in December 2020, and it is envisaged it will be reviewed at regular intervals, through consultation between OS and the Geospatial Commission in order to ensure it remains in line with the PSGA. If you have any queries, comments, contributions, or wish to challenge our public task, you may contact us.

If you wish to make a complaint about OS under the Re-use Regulations, you may do so using our general complaints handling process.

Our public task

The National Geographic Database (NGD)

Access and licensing

Datasets and digital services

Approval and review

PSGA contract

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