Future of Ordnance Survey in the spotlight

Future of Ordnance Survey in the spotlight

February 2001--The future of Ordnance Survey is to be mapped out this spring with the launch of its quinquennial review. Planning Minister Beverley Hughes MP, the minister with special responsibility for Ordnance Survey, announced the start of the review in response to a parliamentary question, saying:

"The review of Ordnance Survey commences today and is expected to last for three months."
"The review team, CMG Admiral, has been appointed following a competitive tendering process. A steering group, chaired by John Ballard, the Principal Finance Officer of my department, will oversee the review and recommendations will be made to me in due course."

All executive agencies and non-departmental government bodies are subject to a formal review of their organisations every five years. Such reviews examine and recommend the most appropriate way the functions and services currently carried out by each agency should be delivered. Similar reviews are currently underway for several others departments and agencies, including HM Land Registry, the Office for National Statistics and HM Customs and Excise.

In line with the Modernising Government White Paper, the review body will consider a range of options for the future of Ordnance Survey, including continued agency status and privatisation.

The review process will provide extensive opportunities for consultation. Written comments and contributions on any aspect of the review are invited from anyone with an interest in Ordnance Survey and its work. They should be sent by 12 March 2001 to:
Julia Evans
Room C335
Ordnance Survey
Romsey Road
SOUTHAMPTON
SO16 4GU
email: jevans@ordsvy.gov.uk

The last such review of Britain's national mapping agency was in 1994. It recommended that Ordnance Survey should continue to operate as an executive agency and government department in its own right. The report recognised that there were clear national benefits in having a single, consistent mapping framework of Great Britain and concluded that Ordnance Survey was, for the foreseeable future, the only organisation able to maintain this framework. The current review was originally planned for 1999, but the government decided to postpone it to allow the newly agreed Trading Fund status of Ordnance Survey to become established.

Web site: www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk