I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold the information you have requested. However, we are unable to comply with your request as we consider the information to be exempt from disclosure.
We consider the information covering the period from March 2025 to May 2025 to be exempt from disclosure under section 21(3) (Information accessible by other means) of the FOIA, as explained below.
Ordnance Survey publishes details of expenditure over £25,000, including costs, supplier payments and transactions for the current year, broken down by month, on our website, under our Publication Scheme: OS Publication scheme | Public information | OS (found under the heading ‘What we spend and how’). The information from March 2025 to May 2025 has already been published and can be viewed at the link here: OS-Corporate-Expenditure-over-25K-Jan-May-2025.xlsx
The information is proactively made available in accordance with Ordnance Survey’s Publication Scheme, and section 21(3) applies as the information is reasonably accessible, as it is already in the public domain. This is an absolute exemption therefore no public interest test is applicable.
The information from June 2025 to the date of your request is held, but not currently published. However, we consider this information to be exempt from disclosure under section 22 (Information intended for future publication) of the FOIA, as explained below.
Expenditure over 25K is routinely published on Ordnance Surveys website via our Publication Scheme. At the time this request was received, Ordnance Survey had the intention of publishing this information as part of our routine update to our Publication Scheme. The information for June 2025 to the most recent months is intended for publication by the end of September 2025 and will be available in .xlsx format.
Public Interest Test:
Section 22 is a qualified exemption, and we are required to consider the public interest.
Ordnance Survey recognises there is a public interest in providing the information that falls within the scope of this request. At the time this request was received OS had a settled intention to publish the data for June 2025 and the most recent months to the end of August 2025, as part of our compliance with our obligations set out at section 19 of the FOIA, which relates to the Publication Scheme.
As this information is due to be published by the end of September 2025, we believe it reasonable to withhold this information until it is published on Ordnance Survey’s website in accordance with our publication process. To provide the information sooner would undermine our publication process, which allows time for review and validation of the data, and it would take staff away from their normal day-to-day role.