Map Charges/GB

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This was an initiative set up in 2008 to find out who's charging what for maps and map services, and how much is going to the Ordnance Survey.

Since the Ordnance Survey Opendata announcements, this is all old news of course.

The idea was to take the sample letter below and send it to your council (e.g by using mySociety's What Do They Know) and document responses here. We got information from 44 out of 468 county, city and district councils in the UK.

Sample FoIA letter

THEIR ADDRESS


YOUR NAME YOUR ADDRESS


Dear Sir/Madam,

I request under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000 the following and would be grateful for any response.

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;
b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;
c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;
d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

Please send this via email to YOUREMAIL or in paper form to the above address.

Many thanks.

Yours faithfully,


YOUR NAME

Results

User:Steve asked Reigate & Banstead £13,187.74 (1 year corporate license), £939.27 (6 month landline license). About 11 pence per person oer year see this blog post
User:Steve asked Surrey Council Surrey County Council does not hold information of the description specified in your request. The county council has one main financial GL code for 'maps and plans'. Expenditure on this code for the financial year 2006/07 is currently £32,920.68. Closing of the accounts for this year has

not yet been finalised so there may still be adjustments to this figure so it should not be treated as final. This figure is reliant on staff allocating the budget code appropriately. It is not possible to isolate what proportion of the spend can be attributed to maps rather than plans, or to the remainder of the criteria you set out above. In particular, map processing and distribution may be absorbed within staff costs rather than recorded as a separate cost.

User:Higgy sent request to Flintshire Council via their website
ChrisW sent request to Monmouthshire County Council (November 2008) In the year 2006, total spend on mapping was £140,520. Of this, £32,900 was spent on Ordnance Survey licences. £37,461 was paid for through council tax revenues, which was broken down by band as follows: Band A - £4.31, band B - £0.83, band C - £0.42, band D - £0.38, band E - £0.60, band F - £0.64, band G - £1.08, band H - £3.86, band I - £10.59.
User:Lorp sent request to Bristol County Council Excluding Ordnance Survey, £207,668 paid for total provision of GIS including salaries. The total paid to Ordnance Survey was £88,264, under the Mapping Services Agreement.
User:Edward sent request to London Borough of Hackney Corporate GIS team:

£12.5K - The Corporate GIS team spends yearly on mapping data purchase. ( £8.5K for OS)

£3K – OS web licence for putting postcode on the web (postcode is being derived from an address Point – OS data)

Total £15.5K; OS £13.5K

LBH:

£30K – LBH has to pay for The Mapping Service Agreement we have with IDeA, who manages the OS licence. This is shared with all directorates, who use the OS data.

Council Tax is not directly linked to a particular type of expenditure. Mr Betts you will have to extrapolate the information on a pro rata basis. The relevant information has been provided from the 2005/06 Statement of Accounts, which is available on our website. Obviously, 2006/07 will not be available until we close the accounts at the end of June 2007.

The amount of net expenditure to be met from government grants and local taxpayers (council tax and business rates) was £391,377k, as shown in the Collection Fund. The demand made to Collection Fund as a contribution towards this expenditure in 2005/06 was £64,559k. Actual income from Council Tax was £60,449k (gross billing was £89,950k, offset by £29,501k of Council Tax Benefit). For information, the total gross expenditure on cost of services was £974,120k.

User:Frankh sent request to London Borough of Tower Hamlets via their website
User:Gagravarr asked Oxfordshire Council In the financial year 2006-7, Oxfordshire County Council had a contract for purchase of maps and map data through the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA) .... During 2006-7, the Council spent £98,123.76 overall on the 3 areas above. Within this overall figure, spending on Ordnance Survey Maps and address data came to £85,277.12 .... No extra services are purchased from Ordnance Survey.
Ojw sent request to Bedfordshire County Council

The total for 2006/7 £55895 which is our annual charge for the MSA (Mapping Service Agreement). We are not aware of any specific costs for map distribution in paper form, although some map distribtution will have incurred printing and plotter maintenance charges and paper costs covered by general overheads which are not separately costed out.

For 2006/7 our fees to Ordnance Survey were £49,384.

We do not allocate individual expenditure to particular categories of the Council's budget, ie either Council tax, government grant or other grant income. However the proportion of the Council's overall budget that was from Council Tax in 06/07 was 71%, so you could assume that approximately 71% of £55895 would be attributable to Council tax received by the Council.

Again the Council does not allocate budgets on a per household basis. However the Council Tax figure above is based on 144654.57 band D house equivalents (where all other house bands have been converted to band D equivalents). On this basis the cost for a band D household would be (0.71 x £55,895)/144654.57 = £0.274 or 27.4 pence per band D household for financial year 06/0.

User:nickb sent request to Wandsworth Council Please see the information provided below in respect of the four points in your request: - a) £45,144.63 is the total spent in 2006 (financial year) on maps, maps procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form. b) 95.2% - This is the percentage of the sum above (a) which is spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey c) All of the sum shown in (a) was paid for through Council Tax d) Each household comprising of 2 or more adults will contribute towards these costs according to the tax banding of their property as follows: - Band A 25.8 pence, Band B 30.1 pence Band C 34.4 pence, Band D 38.7 pence, Band E 47.3 pence, Band F 55.9 pence, Band G 64.4 pence, Band H 77.3 pence
Ojw sent request to Bedford Borough Council a) £36,721.92 (excluding VAT)

b) £18,500 (excluding VAT)

c) We do not hold this information. When we work out the Council’s spending requirements, we know what we will get from Support Grants and National Non Domestic pool. The balances comes from Council Tax but we do not hold the split of this figure,

d) We do not hold this information.

Blackadder sent request to Birmingham City Council Received 17/05/07: I am writing in respect of your enquiry for information under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 for:

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

Please find below the answer to your questions:

a) £229,729

b) £213,675

(Blackadder notes that population of Birmingham is, as near as makes no difference, 1 million)

TomH asked Hertfordshire County Council Your request for information has been considered under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In accordance with the Act confirm that Hertfordshire County Council does not hold this level of information you have requested, because mapping forms part of our core business of service delivery. It therefore not possible to provide you with answers to the points you have raised.

However, I can tell you that our cost for map procurement is made up as follows:

 Fees to Ordnance Survey for 2006     £163,540.12 excluding VAT
 IDeA Management Fee for 2006         £ 16,982.69 excluding VAT

NB: IDeA is the trading arm of LGIH - Local Government Information House - and is responsible for managing our Map Service Agreement.

Regarding the answer to question (d): it is not possible to calculate the sum by council tax band.

TomH asked Broxbourne Borough Council Licence Fees

In the financial year March 2006- April 2007, the Council paid £7603.67 for its Ordnance Survey licence and mapping updates. It also paid a further £1220.30 which covers procurement fees to LGIH and other mapping providers in the agreement.

Software

The Council users 'Interpose' software from Dotted Eyes which it uses to translate the Ordnance Survey data. The software was purchased a number of years ago and the Council pays a £400 annual fee for maintenance/updates of this product.

PhillipB sent request to Cambridgeshire County Council Thank you for your enquiry under the Freedom of Information Act.

During the financial year 2006/07, Cambridgeshire County Council spent £136,000 on OS mapping supplies, mapping agreements, GIS costs for desktop and server software. Of this sum, £81,521 were paid to Ordnance Survey.

CCC does not receive any direct grants for this expenditure so these costs are borne from the Councils usual revenue raising options of Council Tax and Central Government grant. We do not hold the information to enable this to be proportioned to Council Tax household bands.

For further details on our finances, please see our Internet site http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/council/finance/ You may find the sections on Council Finance and Revenue Spending will help your understanding further.

I hope this answers your enquiry fully, but if not please come back to me.

PhillipB sent request to South Cambridgeshire District Council via email on 07/05/07 Received reply 10/06/08, below.
                                2006/07        2007/08
Total expenditure on maps etc.	17,639.72	18,057.57
Expenditure on Ordnance Survey Mapping Service Agreement.
(Included in total above)	16,725.95	17,428.83
Proportion per Council Tax band		
A	1.89	1.91
B	2.21	2.23
C	2.52	2.55
D	2.84	2.87
E	3.47	3.50
F	4.10	4.14
G	4.73	4.78
H	5.67	5.73


pray4mojo sent request to Kent County Coucil A)2006/07 - Total charge payable to Local Government Information House (LGIH) for data supplied under the Mapping Services Agreement = £22836.14

2006/07 - Total charges payable to other suppliers for mapping data = £3097.50

B) 2006/07 - Total charge payable to Ordnance Survey (incorporated in LGIH figure above) for data supplied under the Mapping Services Agreement = £176371.97 2006/07 - Total charges payable to Ordnance Survey for non-MSA mapping products = £699.60

C) KCC's element of the total council tax is a contribution to all of KCC's services and is not attributable to individual services or functions. It is also likely that some mapping costs are incurred by services receiving external income or specific Government grants. In the budget for the year to 31 March 2006 council tax overall totalled £482.054m out of a gross budget requirement spend of £1,986.689m or an average of 24.26%.

D) Again KCC's element of the total council tax is not attributable to individual services or functions. There is therefore no equivalent for individual tax bands. For your information the total council tax yield of £482.054m is equivalent to a Band D council tax of £918.72 in 2006-07.

Jon sent request to Wakefield Metropolitan District Council a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

£87,266.74

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

100% of the amount in (a) relates to the Ordnance Survey

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

Based on the assumption that this revenue spending is funded in the same proportions as the next revenue budget (Government Grant (75%) and Council Tax (25%)) then this would equate to approximately £21k (25%) being funded from Council Tax.

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

By using the council Tax Base figure of 98,363 the cost per band D equivalent can be calculated as £21k divided by CT base 98,363 which results in a cost of 22p per Band D per year. This can be applied to each Band as follows:

Band A 15p

Band B 17p

Band C 20p

Band D 22p

Band E 27p

Band F 32p

Band G 37p

Band H 44p

riad contacted West Sussex County Coucil Response received via email on 24/10/2007.

The total sum spent on Maps and map procurement, processing and distribution are not available for financial/calendar year 2007. The total sum spent on Ordnance Survey for the same period is £91,952.78.

We do not hold the information sought at paragraph c) and d) of your letter.

Richard sent request to Scottish Borders Council (a) Public Access was live from May 2005 and there were no additional costs for spatial information. The Local Plan was also available on-line and again, there were no additional costs for the spatial information. Both are another client of the OS mapping.

(b) The cost of the Ordnance Survey licence fee was £55,556. More information on the agreement is available at:

       http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=1703922

(c) and (d) As Council Tax is a contribution to the cost of Council Services overall, we do not hold and therefore cannot provide the specific information you are requesting. This information is therefore exempt under Section 17 of FOISA as we do not hold this information.

TomChance sent request to Southwark Borough Council Received this response on 31/12/2007:

For the financial year 2006/7, please see my answers in bold below...

A) THE SUM IN TOTAL, IF ANY, SPENT ON MAPS, MAP PROCUREMENT, PROCESSING AND DISTRIBUTION ON-LINE AND IN PAPER FORM DURING EITHER FINANCIAL OR CALENDAR YEAR 2006

Mapping Services Agreement Ordnance Survey = £30,968.28 LGIH (Local Government Information House = £4,464.28

Separate cartography purchasing: A to Z raster maps = £356.00 +VAT raster mapping (1:20,000 scale and 1:200,000 scale) = £300.00 +VAT

Processing and distribution costs Impossible to say as these are day-to-day tasks using paid for mapping products

B) THE PROPORTION OR ABSOLUTE AMOUNT, IF ANY, OF THE SUM (A) SPENT ON LICENSES OR OTHER FEES TO ORDNANCE SURVEY

To the Ordnance Survey = 30,968.28

C) THE PROPORTION OR ABSOLUTE AMOUNT, IF ANY, OF THE SUM (A) WHICH WAS PAID FOR BY COUNCIL TAX

Please see our website for our statement of accounts

D) THE PROPORTION OR ABSOLUTE AMOUNT, IF ANY, OF THE SUM (C) BROKEN DOWN IN TO COUNCIL TAX HOUSE BANDS ON A PER-HOUSEHOLD BASIS

Please see our website for our statement of accounts

User:charlesarthur sent request to Uttlesford County Council via their FOI email on 25 Mar 08. Reply on 21 April 2008:

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006; We have no documentation held on either electronic or hard copy to satisfy this request.

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey; £18282.89

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax; All paid from Council Tax.

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis. We have no documentation held on either electronic or hard copy to satisfy this request.

Calculation: Uttlesford has about 70,000 population, and collects council tax from 30,000 dwellings. That gives a per head per year cost of 28p, or per dwelling per year cost of 61p.


Chris sent request to Edinburgh City Council via their FOI email on 24 Mar 08:

a) The City of Edinburgh Council does not hold this information on a single document.

b) The absolute amount spent on Ordinance Survey mapping (under the Mapping Service Agreement) in financial year 2006/2007 was £132,704.

c) The Council Tax contribution to Council finances runs at around 20%. Therefore around 20% of the total expenditure would be paid for by Council Tax.

d) Requires Clarification.

Ron Wellsted sent request to Wolverhampton City Council via email on 27 Apr 2008:
Richard sent request to West Oxfordshire District Council a) We do not have a specific budget code for mapping nor do staff "bill" their time specifically to mapping so we are unable to answer this question as we do not hold the relevant information.

b) In the financial year 2007/2008 we spent £12,596 with Ordnance Survey.

c) We do not hold this information.

Farzaneh sent request to Manchester City Council Dear Ms Sarafraz

Re: - Request for Information

Thank you for your request for information, which was received by Manchester City Council on 28th April 2008 and is being considered under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

The Council requires additional time to fully consider this request under the provisions of section 10(3) of the Act in order to determine whether the public interest lies in disclosure.

The qualified exemption which may apply to the information you have requested is s.43 - commercial interests.

We aim to respond to this enquiry within 40 working days from the date of receipt, however, if for any reason this cannot be achieved, I will let you know beforehand.

If you have any queries regarding this, please contact me.

Yours sincerely

Gill Wood Information Compliance Assistant Democratic Services Town Hall Albert Sq M60 2LA

Tel: 0161 234 4083 Fax: 0161 274 7007

Website: www.manchester.gov.uk

PaulHurleyUK sent request to Northumberland County Council I refer to your request of 28th April 2008, regarding the amount of money spent on maps during financial year 2006/07.

Under the Mapping Services Agreement the following fees are invoiced to Northumberland County Council:-

OS Fees £61,018.17 LGIH Invoice £8,021.20 SASPAC Licence £600.00

Information regarding the proportion of Council Tax allocated for maps is not available from our system.

I trust this information addresses your request. Should you require any further details, please contact us via foi@northumberland.gov.uk.


Yours sincerely


Lynne Brown


PaulHurleyUK sent request to North Tyneside Council Dear Paul Hurley

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

In all further correspondence please quote our reference RFI 1239.

Your request for information under the above legislation has now been considered.

The information you asked for is as follows: - Question a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

In the financial year 2006/07 we spent £63,506.34 with Ordnance Survey.

Question b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

See above, Question a.

Question c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

The Ordnance Maps Expenditure is £52,951. The spend less grants is £36,721, which is effectively funded by Council Tax.

Question d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

The net spend for Council Tax purposes of £36,721, broken down for the North Tyneside Council element of the Council Tax bill for 2008/09 is as follows:

Band A £0.39 Band B £0.45 Band C £0.52 Band D £0.58 Band E £0.71 Band F £0.84 Band G £0.97 Band H £1.16


PaulHurleyUK sent request to Gateshead Council Dear Sir

You requested the following information:-

1.The sum total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on line and in paper form for calendar or financial year 2006 2.The proportion or absolute amount if any of the sum spent on licences or other fees to ordnance Survey 3.The proportion or absolute amount if any of the sum which was paid for by council tax 4.The proportion if any of the sum broken down by council tax house bands on a per household basis.

In accordance with the Act we have decided to grant access to the information requested and accordingly it is shown below.

1.£188,499.84 2.We do not kepp any account of costs when we produce maps so the figure equates to what the Council paid to OS for mapping services and the monies paid for the map return scheme (extracts supplied for planning/building regulations registered applications) £188,146.12 which includes the annual MSA fee and map return scheme fees. 3 & 4 Zero.

Yours faithfully

Tanya Rossington

Archaeogeek sent request to Lancashire County Council a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and

distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006

Although Lancashire County Council does hold this information, collating it would incur a commitment of resources far in excess of the limit of £450 set by the Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 (SI No. 3244 of 2004). Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act provides that a public authority is not obliged to comply with a request where to do so would exceed such a limit. Due to the devolved nature of procurement within the County Council, and the fact that maps are used by a variety of departments for a variety of reasons (accompanying legal orders, highways works orders, simple 'directions' maps in delegate packs for conferences and meetings, etc. etc.), we would need to contact almost every individual team within the Authority.

b) The proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey

In the 2006/07 financial year, Lancashire County Council spent £204,366.61 with the Ordnance Survey

c) The proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax

In light of our response to (a), above, providing this information would exceed the limit of £450, as explained above. However, we can inform you that the amount spent with the Ordnance Survey in 2006/07 (£204,366.61) equated to £127,842 on the Council Tax levy that year. This equates to 0.034% of the total Council Tax revenue of £376,509,000 received by Lancashire County Council in 2006/07.

d) The proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis

Given that our answer to (c) is based on the answer to (b), and not (a), the £127,842 of the Council Tax levy for 2006/07 (as a result of our spending with Ordnance Survey) represented the following on individual Council Tax bands:


Band A 22.5p per annum

Band B 26.3p per annum

Band C 30.0p per annum

Band D 33.8p per annum

Band E 41.3p per annum

Band F 48.8p per annum

Band G 56.3p per annum

Band H 67.6p per annum

paulm sent request to Rushmoor Borough Council A) The total amount spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during the 2006/07 financial year was £12,370.

B) Of the amount in A) above, £8,242 related to licence and other fees to Ordnance Survey.

C) and D) As Council Tax only forms part of a Local Authorities Funding, the remainder coming from Government Grants, fees and charges and interest receipts from the Council's investments, it is not possible, nor would it be appropriate to break down the figures in A) and B) above in terms of the proportion funded from Council Tax. However for your further information I set out below the percentage breakdown of these different funding streams for 2006/07.

Government Grants - 63% Fees and Charges - 22% Council Tax - 11% Interest Receipts - 4%

Higgy sent request to Shrewsbury and Atcham Borough Council a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

Ordnance Survey Mapping Services Agreement £14659.38 ex VAT Local Government Information House £1938.25 ex VAT Map Return Scheme £2893.65 ex VAT PAF Royalites (Web Click) £217.45 ex VAT TOTAL = £19708.73 ex VAT (financial year 2006)

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey; £17770.48 ex VAT

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax; NIL

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis. N/A

Firefishy sent request to London Borough of Ealing Council via email on 29 Apr 2008

Release News:

a) The total spend, including cartographer staff costs, computer systems and Ordnance Survey charges in financial year 2006-07 was £190,626.

b) Ordnance Survey spend, through the local government Mapping Services Agreement, was £49,383.

c) This information is not held.

d) This information is not held.

Thomas Wood sent request to Greater London Authority via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 30 Apr 2008

Response on the 19th May:
Thank you for email requesting information under the Freedom of Information Act. These are the questions that you have requested information about:

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

It is not possible to provide you with a definitive answer to this question or to break down the expenditure into the exact categories as requested. However what we can say is that in the financial year 2006-07 we estimate the GLA spent the following on mapping and GIS related services:

  • GIS related training £750
  • GIS software products and maintenance £15,700
  • Plotter supplies for map production £415
  • GIS and mapping data licences £76,850

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

In addition to this the GLA employed a dedicated Geographic Information Support Officer at an approximate salary of £28,000. There may be other expenditure items of which a proportion was attributable to GIS or mapping activities but it is not possible to distinguish this. The total amount spent on GIS data licenses from the Ordnance Survey was £56,596 for the 2006/07 financial year.

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

The GLA's total gross expenditure, like Local Authorities, is funded from a combination of general government grant, council tax, fees and charges and specific grants. The funding is matched to the total expenditure, and not the individual component parts, to ensure that a balanced budget is prepared for each financial year. It is not therefore possible, to state what percentage of council tax is used to fund expenditure on maps, map procurement, processing, distribution, licences or other fees.

Thomas Wood sent request to Transport for London via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 30 Apr 2008

Your request has been considered under the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.

Our financial data is not stored in a format that enables the identification of funds spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form. TfL paid £697k towards a GLA group licence for Ordnance Survey map data in 2005/06.

TfL is not a 'precepting authority' and accordingly does not raise council tax. The GLA is the 'precepting authority', and the amount of council tax revenue allocated to TfL provides a very small proportion of TfL's total funding. It is not possible to ascribe any of this council tax allocation to particular expenditure by TfL.

Thomas Wood sent request to London Borough of Sutton Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 30 Apr 2008

Response on the 14th May:
Further to you request I have the following information regarding your 4 questions (a - d):

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

For 2006-7 financial year the total spent on mapping was £27,037.08, This includes the fee Payable under the Mapping services Agreement (MSA).

We do not have any information of the number of maps printed. (The MSA does not require us to keep such records).

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

The fee payable to the MSA includes a portion for the Ordnance Survey. We do not have any information on this split as this contract managed by the Information & Development Agency on behalf of Local Government.

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

The amount payable from Council Tax was £16,439.15

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

Band D equivalent cost £0.23 per property. Other band equivalents range from £0.15 (Band A) to £0.45 (Band H)
elvin ibbotson sent request to Amber Valley Borough Council request by email on 1 May 2008

response by email 8 May 2008: total: £19,182 includes £17,337 to OS of which £7,277 paid for by Council Tax in following proportions based on band D: 43p... band A: 6/9; band B: 7/9; band C: 8/9; band E: 11/9; band F: 13/9; band G: 15/9; band H: 18/9

I suspect most of the OS charges were paid by applicants for planning permission buying maps more detailed and accurate than OSM could provide (yet) but which OUGHT TO BE FREE

Andrew Chadwick sent request to University of Oxford via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 9 May 2008; response precisely on the 20-day due date, 9 Jun 2008:

Thank you for your request under the Freedom of Information Act.

It is estimated that in the 2006/07 financial year, the University spent about £12,000 on maps, of which about £800 related to the Ordinance Survey.

(The University?s financial year runs from 1 August to 31 July.)

Mapperz sent request to Somerset County Council

request by email on 28th April 2008 response by email 15th May 2008:


a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

During the financial year 2006/07, Somerset County Council spent £100,484 on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form.

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

During the financial year 2006/07, Somerset County Council spent £5,524 on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

During the financial year 2006/07, Somerset County Council received £273 million of general funding through three sources: Revenue Support Grant, National Non-Domestic Rates, and Council Tax. Council Tax provided 68% of this total. The answer in part A (£100,484) is equivalent to 0.04% of the total Council Tax funding. This represents spending of 36p per Band D equivalent.

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

The 36p figure calculated in part C can be broken down into equivalent amounts for the other seven Council Tax bandings using the standard proportions of Band D applied to each band (ninths), where Band D is nine ninths. For example, the tax for a Band H property is twice that of a Band D, whereas a Band A is two thirds. This therefore gives the following equivalent spends per band:
Band Ninths £ spent per Band Proportion of Band Equivalent
A 6 0.24p 0.04%
B 7 0.28p 0.04%
C 8 0.32p 0.04%
D 9 0.36p 0.04%
E 11 0.44p 0.04%
F 13 0.52p 0.04%
G 15 0.60p 0.04%
steve8 sent request to Barnet Borough Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 16 May 2008

Response on 21 May 2008: This is our response to your recent FOI request.

a) We would have made use of and published via our web facing GIS Ordnance Survey based mapping products that are available to us as part of the Mapping Services Agreement (MSA), an agreement that local authorities entered into with Ordnance Survey in order to make use of their mapping products.

b) For the financial year 2006/2007 the fee that we paid to Ordnance Survey under the Mapping Services Agreement was £50,131.89

c) Cannot comment on this

d) Cannot comment on this

This is all the information that we can provide in relation to your request.

ianibbo sent request to Sheffield City Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 19 May 2008

Thank you for your recent FOI request. My response to your request is below:

I request under the Freedom Of Information Act 2000 the following and would be grateful for any response.

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

For the calendar year 2006/7, this authority spent some £147,134.48 (excluding VAT) on external payments.

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

Of the figure stated above, £133,66.21 was spent on licences or other fees to Ordnance Survey

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

The sums quoted were spent from the Council's revenue account, which as you will be aware is made up from a number of sources, including Council Tax, Business Rates, Government Grants etc. It is not possible to identify expenditure solely from the Council Tax income.

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

Given the answer to "C" above you will appreciate that this information is not available. If you have any questions about this response, please let me know.

Mapperz sent request to Devon County Council

request by email on 28th April 2008 response by email 20th May 2008:

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006.

This is information is not recorded anywhere.

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licences or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

The total sum for financial year 2006/07 spent on Ordnance Survey was £136,437.

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax.

Information on the council tax contribution to individual elements of services is not held. For example, the cost of a map might be covered by a charge for a service or an external grant. The only information we can supply is in relation to the Council's overall costs for 2006/07.

Gross Expenditure (Income & Expenditure Account) £1,080,589 (From Statement of Accounts 06/07 p. 34) Statement of Movement of General Fund Balance -£51,747 (From Statement of Accounts 06/07 p. 35) £1,028,842

District Council Collection Funds £275,235 26.75% of services funded by Council Tax

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

The county council does not hold information on the number of households in each of the council tax bands. However, some information provided by the District Councils is available on our website: http://www.devon.gov.uk/housecounciltax..

If this information is not sufficient you will need to contact the District Councils directly. Their contact information can be found on this webpage: http://www.devon.gov.uk/district_councils

Cedric sent request to Swindon Council Re: FOI Freedom of Information Request FOI281847

I enclose the following information that you requested under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

Total costs associated with map procurement, processing and distribution are £84,600 for 06-07 financial year (Apr 06 - Mar 07) of which £51,900 is officer time in using maps online and in paper form.

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

Of the remaining balance, licences and other fees paid to Ordnance Survey = £25,900 (31% of total costs).

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis.

No costs have been directly paid for by council tax.

cinimodneerg sent request to Southend Borough Council

request by email on 28th April 2008 response by email 03 June 2008:

The answer to your FOI request is as follows –


The total amount spent on the general heading of “maps” in the financial year ended 31st March 2007 was £2,362. The total amount paid to Ordnance Survey on licences was £33,215 in the financial year ended 31st March 2007.


Al this expenditure was met from the general income of the Council that includes Council Tax, Government Grants and other receipts.

steve8 sent request to Enfield Borough Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 06 Jun 2008

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006; Amount spent during financial year 2006: Maps £55,091.50 (internal cost £4,617) Map Procurement £3,000 Processing and Distribution on-line £5,900 Paper form ££8,698

b) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey; Ordnance Survey license under the MSA £43,806.85 Other fees to Ordnance Survey £3,667.65 Post Office Royalties £3,000

c) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax; The sum of a) is £72,689 Total gross expenditure in 2006/7 £820,819,000 Total yield from Council Tax £106,600,000 % of spend from Council tax 12.99% Therefore proportion of a) attributable to C Tax is £9,440

d) the proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (c) broken down in to council tax house bands on a per-household basis. The average number of B and D Households in 2006/7 was 106755 Average cost to a B and D Household through C Tax was £0.09

Jonobennett sent request to Guildford Borough Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 10 Jun 2008

a. It is not possible to provide a definitive total on the amount spent on maps... Having stated this, I can inform you that the amount paid to Ordnance Survey during the 2006/7 financial year was £20,643.

b. Please see above. It is not possible to identify the proportion specifically spent on licences.

c. The council does not specifically pay for items from council tax income...

d. As above the council does not hold this information.

mattyt1979 sent request to Livepool City Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on 16 Jun 2008
Earle Martin sent request to London Borough of Waltham Forest via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on July 5 2008

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

Response: Financial Year 2006/7: £33,390.25

b) The proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) spent on licenses or other fees to Ordnance Survey;

Response: Financial Year 2006/7: £33,140.25

c) The proportion or absolute amount, if any, of the sum (a) which was paid for by council tax;

I can confirm that the Council does not hold this information.

Alex McKee sent request to Gloucestershire County Council via mySociety WhatDoTheyKnow on September 20 2008

a) The sum in total, if any, spent on maps, map procurement, processing and distribution on-line and in paper form during either financial or calendar year 2006;

Response: The cost of the MSA licence in 2006 / 2007 was £90,000.

b),c) and d) Gloucestershire County does not hold this information.

Kaerast asked Bradford City Council During the financial year 2007/8 the Council spent £137,958.37 Of this amount the Council spent £118,475.44 on licences or other fees to Ordnance Survey whatdotheyknow december 2008
njd27 asked Hampshire County Council The answers to your request is as follows

a) the total sum spent on maps was £235,618.67

b) Of this total, £169,519.20 was paid to Ordnance Survey in licensing fees in the 2006/7 financial year.

c) the amount met from the council tax was £133,700 and

d) the council tax per Band D property was £0.27. whatdotheyknow december 2008