Ordnance Survey (OS) licensing follows our fair trading principles. These were originally established under The National Archives’ Information Fair Trader Scheme:
Maximisation
We will grant permissions for the commercial re-use of OS data under a suitable licence unless there are strong reasons not to allow re-use.
Simplicity
We will ensure our processes enable simple access to OS data, supported by simple policies and licences.
Innovation
We encourage innovation and will continue to remove obstacles to re-use and facilitate the development of new and innovative forms of re-use.
Transparency
We will ensure users can easily obtain:
- The terms for re-use, including licence terms.
- The applicable charges.
- The details of what is available for re-use.
Fairness
We will treat all re-users in a non-discriminatory way for the same type of re-use. In addition, we will not compete unfairly just because we have produced the data.
Challenge
We will operate a robust complaints process to review licensing decisions where required and with appropriate references to the role of the Information Commissioner’s Office in the process.
‘OS data’ refers to OS published datasets in which there are Crown copyright and or database rights.