Legal boundaries and land ownership

Dear Requester

Request for information – FOI12326

Thank you for your e-mail of 21st September 2012.  We respond to each of your questions in turn:

1. What procedure does Ordnance Survey have in place when their maps are used inappropriately to state legal boundary’s and land ownership?

This information is not held by Ordnance Survey.  This is because Ordnance Survey maps do not state legal boundary’s and land ownership is not shown on Ordnance Survey maps.

Further information is available from the following web page:

http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/support/knowledgebase/property-boundaries.html

2. How often has Ordnance Survey written to members of the public because Ordnance Survey plans are being used inappropriately?

Ordnance Survey does not maintain or hold a record detailing how many times we, as an organisation as a whole, have written to members of the public on specific issues, other than those we detail under point 3 below.

We do hold records in our electronic records system (ERM) and our customer contact system which creates a record of our interactions with our customers.

Due to the records being saved under varying naming conventions or by customer name alone, we would need to access all of these records to determine how many times we may have written on the subject you specify.

Subsequently, we would not be able to comply with this section of your request as the cost of compliance would exceed the appropriate limit, as set out under Section 12 of the FOIA.

3. Does Ordnance Survey keep long term records of when their plans are used inappropriately and can you quantify the amount of times this has happened?

The legal department at Ordnance Survey does hold separate records of referrals from members of public for infringements of the Crown Copyright in Ordnance Survey mapping (so where Ordnance Survey mapping has been used without the appropriate copyright or licensing arrangements or by breach of an existing licence). We can advise that since 2000 there have been 3644 referrals.

Public Interest
As the information you have requested is not held, or has been refused under Section 12 of the FOIA, there is no public interest case to consider.

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 Internal Review Officer, by contacting them as follows:

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

E-mail: 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 Internal Review 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 Internal Review 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, Monday to Friday.

Thank you for your enquiry.