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One Scotland Mapping Agreement and Licensing Data

As of 1 April 2009, public sector bodies in Scotland have been able to access the same Ordnance Survey data. This has greatly enabled data sharing across the community and the support of public sector service delivery.

Find more details about what One Scotland Mapping Agreement (OSMA) membership can do for your organisation below.

Where can I find a copy of the OSMA Member licence?

Here is the licence for the OSMA for you to view.

OSMA member licence (April 2013)

Find out more about what you can do with OSMA licensed data, once you are a member below.

What does the OSMA licence provide for members?

Sharing data with your contractors

As with past agreements, you will continue to be able to share data with your contractors. This can either be done via an electronic template or by incorporating the relevant clauses contained within the template in your own bespoke licences with your contractors.

(Available in the Public sector extranet)

Sharing data with others - End User Licence

This licence permits you to pass data and or derived data to anyone who is supporting you in the delivery of your Core Business. You do not have to have additional formal  arrangements in place with these bodies, so this end user licence helps individuals, voluntary and community groups or other similar bodies who require mapping to deliver and/or support your public task to deliver your core business.


Sharing data with infrastructure bodies

Infrastructure bodies comprise those in the gas, electricity, water, rail, transport and telecommunication sectors, as well as transport and airport operators.

Public sector clients and this wider group of customers now have common terms, which permit the exchange of derived data between entities, as long as they are licensed for the same product/s and for the same geographical coverage of the data you intend to share.

New display of information

Key changes are:

No restriction on the size of mapping when publishing in hard copy format.

Removal of the mandatory requirement for watermarking when publishing block plans and map extracts, which form part of planning applications, on the web. Use of a watermark in these circumstances will be at the discretion of the OSMA principle contact. In all cases such maps and extracts must be published in pdf, jpeg or other similar formats.

Joint Initiatives with Public Sector mapping Agreement (PSMA) Members

These terms permit members of the Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) to pass data to you when you are working with them on a recognised Joint Initiative and, which requires use of mapping covering areas of England and/or Wales to fulfill obligations under that initiative.


Commercial/Financial gain

The OSMA licence does not permit you to commercially exploit the data. However, you are entitled to make a charge for the supply of data so long as monies received do not exceed your incremental costs of supplying or making available that data to a recipient.

Additional Ordnance Survey licences which are not part of the OSMA are available if you wish to commercially exploit the base data (or data derived from the base data); please contact the OSMA helpdesk on 0845 458 0650 or email us for more information.


OS OpenData™

The terms covering these products are included in your OSMA licence. Note that the update arrangements for the products remain unaltered from your previous collective agreement.

Free to use:

The access and use of selected Ordnance Survey map products is made available to OSMA members at no additional charge at the point of use. Other costs may be incurred depending on how you decide to manage/host your data and if you decide to licence other products not covered under OSMA.

Derived data and exemptions

These terms provide wider use rights for certain types of derived data. There is also an exemptions process specifically for the public sector, which will provide a mechanism for OSMA members to request further reviews of any derived data which Ordnance Survey considers does not meet the Free to Use data terms.

Apply now

Tell me more about what 'Core Business' means?

The core business of a public sector organisation is the provision of public sector services.

Within the OSMA, core business terms have replaced Business Use clauses used in previous agreements. Under this definition, OSMA members are entitled to use data provided through the agreement for any purposes they consider they have to undertake to meet their public service delivery obligations. For example, this includes:

  • Creating and monitoring policy
  • Operational management of government
  • Delivering government business and public services
  • Making information available to the public
  • Performing any other function required by statute and passing derived information and/or data to any other member of the OSMA

Where can I find more information?

Please see our support page for further resources and how to contact our helpdesk.

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For general enquiries, complaints, feedback or suggestions, email: customerservices@ordnancesurvey.co.uk or call us on 08456 05 05 05