Flight diagrams

Dear Requester

Request for information FOI12312

Thank you for your e-mail of 15th August 2012, requesting:

'Under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act I would like to be supplied with the following data held by Ordnance Survey:

Aerial photographic survey data captured between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2011 captured by a) OS staff and b) subcontractors and agents acting on behalf of Ordnance Survey and where the data would be supplied to OS as part of the contractual survey agreement.

The requested details would be the flight diagrams or similar information necessary for the identification of a single frame by time, location, capture medium and scale which would represent a single point in time at a particular location for the purposes of study and/or evidence in a legal, environmental, historical or other such investigations.'

Ordnance Survey does hold the flight diagram information you have requested for 2010 and 2011.

As previously advised to you under your request FOI11194, in July 2011, it has been necessary for Ordnance Survey to change the way in which we hold historic flight diagram information. The information is no longer held on disc in archive format, but is held as a scanned copy in an internal directory under the relevant national grid prefix, containing diagrams dating back to the early 1970s.

I confirm this is still the case for the 2010 diagrams as per your previous request, and also relates to the archiving of the 2011 flight diagrams.

As previously explained, the volume of information contained in this internal directory is vast, and the cost to locate, retrieve and extract the information would exceed the appropriate cost limit which has been set at £600 for Central Government departments.

Although the number of years you are requesting at this time is less than your previous request, because of the requirement to search the full directory it would still exceed the cost limit, therefore it is not possible for us to suggest you reduce the scope of your request to fall below the cost limit in this instance.

Subsequently, under Section 12 (1) of the FOIA exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit we will not be complying with your request, as the cost of complying exceeds the appropriate limit.

Under Section 16 of the FOIA 'The duty to provide advice and assistance', Ordnance Survey will continue to respond to requests for aerial imagery, received from you, under the Freedom of Information Act.

We are able to conduct a 'specified search' for aerial imagery when notified of a specific area/location to enable us to determine the dates we do hold imagery, for a single image frame by: time, location, capture medium and scale, which would represent a single point of time at a particular location. This search would therefore include aerial photographic survey data captured between 1st January 2010 and 31st December 2011 captured by a) OS staff and b) subcontractors and agents acting on behalf of Ordnance Survey and where the data would be supplied to OS as part of the contractual survey agreement.

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 FOI Appeals Officer, by contacting them as follows:

FOI Appeals Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
Southampton
SO16 0AS

E-mail: mailto:foi@ordnancesurvey.co.uk

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 FOI Appeals Officer will not have been involved in the original decision. They will conduct an 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 FOI Appeals Officer will either: uphold the original decision, provide 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 with the Information Commissioner's Office at:

The Case Reception Unit
Customer Service Team
The Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane 
Wilmslow
Cheshire 
SK9 5AF

E-mail: mail@ico.gsi.gov.uk 

Telephone helpline: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545745 for advice.

Thank you for your enquiry.