The economic contribution of Ordnance Survey

OXERA (Oxford Ecomomic Research Associates Ltd) Final Report (public version)

1. Introduction

At the end of January 1999 OXERA was commissioned by Ordnance Survey Great Britain (OS) to estimate the value of the economic infrastructure 'built on' OS data. The study has been undertaken over a three-month period and was, therefore, necessarily limited in both size and scope.

The end result of the research is a report that considers the economic value of OS. 'Economic value' is taken to mean the contribution which OS makes to the Great Britain economy as a producer of final and intermediate products and services, as a purchaser of intermediate products and services, and, perhaps most importantly, as the provider of geographic information (GI) in the national interest. There are thus two distinct approaches. The first focuses on the commercial contribution of OS products and services, and the second considers the social and environmental value of OS to society.

Any monetary values provided are, given the nature of the project, broad indicators of the scale of the contribution of OS to Great Britain's economy. Given the lack of empirical evidence for a study of this kind¹, consideration should be given to the conclusions that are reached on the basis of both qualitative and quantitative assessments. In some instances, financial information that is commercially confidential has been omitted from this public version of the report. The key figures provided demonstrate how conclusions have been reached, and details of the methodology used are provided throughout.

¹This is not a unique problem to this study. For example, Hoogsteden, C.C. (1999) notes in a working paper for Land Information New Zealand that, 'Quite simply, the necessary empirical data with integrity is not just in short supply at present, it is virtually non-existent.'