List of post boxes in Great Britain (FOI21991)

Thank you for your email of 15 March 2021, requesting information from Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2000, as set out in the extract below:

“Please can you provide the following information under the 2001 Freedom of Information act. A list of post boxes in Great Britain including the 6 digit easting and northing coordinate. In the case of Northern Scotland this should be a 7 digit easting and northing”.

I confirm that Ordnance Survey does hold the information that you have requested, however, we are unable to comply with your request and provide the information, as we consider the information to be exempt from disclosure under section 21 (Information reasonably accessible to the applicant by other means) of the FOIA, as explained below: -

Free standing post boxes are captured in OS Master Map, this is one of Ordnance Survey’s commercial products. You can obtain this information by contacting one of our licenced partners and paying the appropriate fee; section 21(2)(a) states that information may be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment.

Under the duty to provide information and assistance in accordance with section 16 of the FOIA, the following partners would be best placed to deal with your request and will be able to confirm the costs involved, contact details are available at the links below: -

• Landmark
• eMapsite
• ESRI

This is an absolute exemption and therefore not subject to the public interest test.

We also consider the information to be exempt under section 43(2) of the FOIA, which exempts information where disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of any person (including the public authority holding it) although we are not relying on this exemption in this response.