Volunteering Leave Employee Policy (FOI2501)

Employee policy - paid volunteering leave

Request for information - Ref no: FOI2501

March 10, 2025

Information request

We received your request on 26 December 2024.

We have handled your request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000.

A copy of your request is set out in the extract below:

“Dear Ordnance Survey Limited,

Please could you provide me with the content of all employee policy relating to paid leave for volunteering. Including, but not limited to, the number of paid days generally available to employees of your organisation and the eligibility requirements for use of this leave.”

Our response

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold the information you have requested.

We do not have a formal policy relating to paid leave for volunteering by employees, instead, reference to paid leave for volunteering is found within our Special Leave for Public Duties Policy, relevant extracts of which are set out below:

"1 Introduction

This policy sets out the public duties for which you may request special leave to support your participation.

In most cases Ordnance Survey (OS) exceeds its statutory duty in enabling you to take paid time off to perform public duties and have time off for other public services. The table below sets out the maximum number of days you may take per year against each event. Any additional time needed to perform the public duty/service may be taken as annual leave.

2 Leave allowances for public duties

You should discuss your request for leave with your People Leader and record in Workday along with any documents providing details of your involvement. Your People Leader will consider and approve your application. If, for any reason, your request has been turned down, they will discuss this with you and provide an explanation. Possible reasons could be:

Detrimental effect on the OS's ability to meet customer demand;
Inadequate resources to cover your absence;
Detrimental impact quality or performance;
Planned structural changes in the business.

There is no right of appeal against any decision to not approve special leave.

Public duty/service	Days per annum
Mayor or Lord Provost – during year of office	24 days
Justice of the peace	Up to 18 days paid leave each year plus paid travelling time to allow attendance at court (maximum of 26 times).
Membership of a local authority, or Attendance on Children’s Panel (Scotland)	Up to 18 days paid leave each year for Local Government work, e.g. elected member of a local authority/council chair.
Membership of a health authority	Up to 6 days paid leave each year, for attendance at Health boards, district health authorities, family practitioner committees.
Membership of an education body Membership of a statutory tribunal Membership of a board of prison visitors or prison visiting committee Membership of an environment agency Membership of a Scottish environment protection agency Pension scheme trustees Parole Boards, Valuation Office Agency, Parish or Community Council, Social Security and child support (SSCS) Tribunals, Veterans Advisory & Pensions Committees (regional)	Up to 6 days paid leave each year.
Jury service	Paid leave for as long as required by the court, however dispensation for non-attendance for business reasons may be sought in exceptional circumstances.
Witness in court	Criminal cases and coroner’s court – paid leave for as long as required by the court. Civil cases – unpaid leave for as long as required by the court. If you are appearing in an official capacity on behalf of OS, you will be on official duty and will not need to take leave.
Royal National Lifeboat Institution Volunteer emergency services training (inc Specials and police volunteers)	Up to 5 days paid leave each year, including up to 5 days’ paid leave for initial training course.
Civil defence training	Up to 15 days paid leave each year
Youth leadership training	Up to 5 days’ paid leave in 2 years
Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Award	1 day’s paid leave to attend presentation ceremony.
Training for becoming a first aider or a charity as ‘listening’/counselling Volunteer	Up to 4 days for initial training course thereafter up to 3 days paid leave each year for any additional or refresher training.
Map Action (registered UK charity that specialises in providing mapping for humanitarian emergencies across the world)	Up to 10 days for any formally approved members for training and incident support. You may apply for annual or unpaid leave for any additional time off.
Voluntary work (Volunteer day)	1 day per year"

Employees can also volunteer with the Armed Forces and are paid as per our Armed Forces Policy. Below are the relevant extracts from the Armed Forces Policy relating to paid leave:

"2.5 Reservists are required to inform OS that they are a member of the Reserve Forces, allowing the organisation to provide the relevant support. OS also recognises the additional skills that being a reservist brings to the civilian workplace and therefore useful to understand where these particular skill sets are within the workforce.

2.6 The Ministry of Defence (MoD) provides an employer notification each year in the form of a written confirmation that the employee is a reservist. The letter will also provide detail of mobilisation obligations, rights as an employer and employee, details of financial assistance available upon mobilisation and where possible, details of any annual training commitments. A follow up letter will be sent each year confirming these details, it is the reservist’s responsibility to ensure that the employer details are correct.

3.2 OS is committed to granting additional paid leave of up to three weeks (15 days) per annum to enable reservists to attend their annual camp training commitments. Any shortfall in training days can be made up using annual leave or special unpaid leave.

3.3 OS is committed to granting additional paid leave of 5 days per annum to enable CFAV to attend their annual camp or cadet training. In addition, OS will provide up to an additional 5 days for any initial training commitments. Any shortfall in training days can be made up using annual leave or special unpaid leave.

3.4 Additional unpaid leave or annual leave from the employee’s normal annual allocation may be granted for short periods of training, provided adequate notice is given and where such training cannot be undertaken in off-duty time. Attendance at weekend camps, which cannot be undertaken during off-duty, will be subject to the same arrangements.

4.3 An employee who wishes to volunteer for mobilisation must seek prior agreement of their employer via the designated contact and line manager. Any such request will be considered within a reasonable timeframe, typically no longer than 5 days. Where there are multiple requests in a single department/unit these will be referred to the appropriate Senior People Leader / Director."

Next steps

Internal review

If you are unhappy with our response, you may request an internal review with our Internal Review Officer by contacting them, within two months of receipt of our final response to your request, as follows:

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

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 Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the original decision. They will conduct an independent 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 Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision, provide an 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, within three months of receiving our response, with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You should make complaints to the ICO within six weeks of receiving the outcome of an internal review.

Visit the ICO website to report a concern.

Call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113.

All information requests

See our previous responses to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

Search for FOI responses