About Ordnance Survey

It was back in 1791 that the Government realised that in planning adequate defences to repel any invasion, the South Coast of England needed to be comprehensively and accurately mapped. So it instructed its Board of Ordnance – the defence ministry of its day – to speed the necessary survey work.

That historic decision led to the mapping the whole country in detail, and is also the source of the intriguing name 'Ordnance Survey' – an organisation that eventually grew to become the worlds leading mapmaker and a major provider of digital geographical information.

Today it is a dynamic, self-financing £100-million-a-year civilian organisation at the forefront of the e-business revolution, producing computer data products and paper maps for business, leisure, and administrative and educational use. It is still part of the UK Government, but it covers its operating costs by selling its products and services or licensing others to use its copyright material.

Since 1999 Ordnance Survey has had government 'Trading Fund' status, giving it more responsibility for its own finances and planning and more freedom to develop new initiatives.

At the same time, a National Interest Mapping Services Agreement (NIMSA) was put in place – a government contract to help fund specific mapping activities that are vital to the national interest but which cannot be justified on purely commercial grounds. They include such tasks as keeping the most detailed mapping of remote areas up-to-date – areas where such mapping is vital for public administration but where there is little other demand. This work is carried out on a not-for-profit basis.