Organisation information 2022-2023 and 2023-2024

We received your request on 27 February 2025.

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:

“I am writing to obtain the following information under the freedom of information act. Please provide the following information for the 2022-23 and 2023-24 financial years:
1.
2.
3. The total income your organisation received from the government in each year.
4.
5.
6.
7. Your organisation’s total expenditure in each year.
8.
9.
10.
11. Your organisation’s total staff headcount in each year.
12.
13.
14.
15. The year in which your organisation was originally founded
16.
For the purposes of this FOI, income from the government refers to all income you received from the UK government. This is most likely in the form of government grants but could also be through other mechanisms.

Total expenditure refers to the total amount of money your organisation spent in each financial year. If this is not available, please provide net expenditure and identify it as such.

Your organisation’s headcount refers to the total number of staff employed during each financial year. If a total headcount is not available please provide the full-time equivalent figure and identify it as such.

The year in which your organisation was founded refers to the initial founding of the organisation rather than a name change. Please provide the earliest possible date for this.

Finally, I have included a table below to format answers, please feel free to use if it makes the response easier:"

Your request has only four questions, however you have referenced numbers 1 to 16 in your request. The four questions you have asked OS are numbered 3, 7, 11 and 15 in your request and we have used this same numbering in our response.

I confirm Ordnance Survey does hold the information requested at numbers 3, 7, 11 and 15 in your request. However, we consider this information to be exempt from disclosure under section 21 (Information accessible to the applicant by other means) of the FOIA , as it is already in the public domain and accessible to you, as explained further below.

Taking each of your questions in turn:

1. The total income your organisation received from the government in each year.

1. Your organisation’s total expenditure in each year.

1. Your organisation’s total staff headcount in each year.

The information requested above for the years 2022-23 and 2023-24 is available to you in our Annual Reports which are published on our website OS annual reports | About us | OS (please ensure you scroll down the web page for the earlier report).

For ease of reference, we have however, extracted the information from our Annual Reports and provided it in your table, as set out below:

*Cost of sales and operating costs    ** Means average number of permanent staff

1. The year in which your organisation was originally founded

This information is also available on our website here: OS history | About us | OS.

We can confirm that 21 June 1971 is the date officially recognised as the birth of Ordnance Survey. The present legal structure of Ordnance Survey Limited was established in 2015, please see our Governances pages on our website for further information: OS Governance | Home | OS.

Section 21 is an absolute exemption therefore no public interest test is applicable. 

Advice and Assistance

Before making any new requests please browse the resources available to you on our website, please see our Freedom of Information request page for further information: Make a Freedom of Information (FOI) request | Public information | OS