Dear Mr Davidson, 

Ref No: FOI19903 – Request for information  

Thank you for your email of 28 May 2019.

As your request was received by Ordnance Survey on 28 May 2019 we will
provide you with a response within 20 working days, as required by the
Freedom of Information Act 2000, therefore by 25 June 2019.

In exceptional circumstances it may be necessary for Ordnance Survey to
extend this date to consider a complex public interest argument if
engaging a qualified exemption.  In such cases we will notify you of the
revised date by which we would expect to provide a response. 

Should you need to contact Ordnance Survey regarding your request at any
time, please quote the allocated reference number in your correspondence. 

Thank you for your enquiry. 

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Cole

Freedom of Information Officer, Legal Services

[1]cid:image001.jpg@01D4D8F8.ECFBF010

Adanac Drive, Southampton, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS

T: +44 03456 05 05 05

[2]www.os.uk | [3][email address] |

Follow us: [4]Twitter | [5]LinkedIn | [6]YouTube | [7]Instagram |
[8]Facebook

Our values are adventurous, incisive, restless and true.

This email is only intended for the person to whom it is addressed and may
contain confidential information. If you have received this email in
error, please notify the sender and delete this email which must not be
copied, distributed or disclosed to any other person.

Unless stated otherwise, the contents of this email are personal to the
writer and do not represent the official view of Ordnance Survey. Nor can
any contract be formed on Ordnance Survey's behalf via email. We reserve
the right to monitor emails and attachments without prior notice.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Ordnance Survey Limited (Company Registration number 09121572)
Registered Office: Explorer House
Adanac Drive
Southampton SO16 0AS
Tel: 03456 050505
[9]http://www.os.uk

References

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9. http://www.os.uk/

Dear Mr Davidson,

Ref No: FOI19903 – Request for information

Thank you for your email of 28 May 2019, requesting information from
Ordnance Survey in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
2000, as set out in the extract below:

“In 2016, the Department of Business, Energy, Industrial Strategy, paid
Ordnance Survey over £400,000 to investigate and report on options for an
'open address register' (in response to a statement by Chancellor
Hammond.)

This spending has been described in a FOI response that you can view here:

[1]https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlo...

BEIS has no record of any outputs from this research and scoping project.
They say that the work was paused after the EU referendum in 2016 and then
abolished altogether at the change of government in 2017.

I write to you now, in line with Freedom of Information legislation, to
request from you:

a) any output documents such as research papers, briefing documents,
proposal documents and summary documents etc you may have produced as part
of this open register project.

b) detailed breakdown of how the money provided by BEIS was spent in
relation to this open register project.”

I confirm that Ordnance Survey (OS) does hold the information that you
have requested in part a) and part b) of your request.  However, we are
unable to comply with your request and provide a copy of the information,
as we consider it to be exempt from disclosure under section 43(2)
(prejudice to the commercial interests of any person) and, in the case of
part a) of your request, also under section 41(1) (information provided in
confidence) of the FOIA. 

Taking each of your requests in turn, this is explained in further detail
below: -

a) any output documents such as research papers, briefing documents,
proposal documents and summary documents etc you may have produced as part
of this open register project.

Section 43(2) (prejudice to the commercial interests of any person)

We consider that the release of the information held by OS would be likely
to cause commercial prejudice to OS, Government and other third parties. 
The information contains:

o detailed information in relation to OS’s methodology and research,
which is commercially sensitive as it would be likely to be of
commercial use to our competitors, thus damaging to OS’s ability to
operate successfully in the commercial environment in which we
operate; and
o OS data similar to data which is released by OS data under licence,
and thus could be used by OS’s competitors instead of our existing
published data.

In addition, we have consulted the department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for its view, and BEIS has confirmed,
consistently with its previous response in relation to a similar request,
that the information should be withheld on the grounds of commercial
sensitivity given that the project is still under policy development. 

OS recognises that there is always a general public interest in
transparency.  However, this must be balanced against the public interest
in allowing OS and third parties to protect their commercial position.  In
this case, we note that disclosure of the information would (rather than
would be likely  to) cause the commercial prejudice against which this
exemption aims to protect, and that such prejudice would impact on both OS
and BEIS.  On balance, in this case, we are satisfied that there is a
greater public interest in withholding the information under this
exemption.

Section 41 (1) Information provided in confidence

Under Section 41 of FOIA 2000, public authorities are not obliged to
comply with any request for disclosure which would constitute a breach of
confidence actionable by the person to whom a confidentiality obligation
is owed. 

In this case, the information itself is not otherwise accessible, and it
is information which is of importance to OS, BEIS and other third-party
contributors, and thus should not be treated as trivial.  Second, the
information is clearly protected by legally binding, written
confidentiality obligations.  Lastly, unauthorised disclosure of this
information would be likely to have a detrimental effect on OS, BEIS and
other third-party contributors. 

This is an absolute exemption and therefore no public interest test is
required to be undertaken.

b) detailed breakdown of how the money provided by BEIS was spent in
relation to this open register project.

Section 43(2) (prejudice to the commercial interests of any person)

We consider the information which details the breakdown of how the money
was spent to be exempt from disclosure under section 43(2) (prejudice to
the commercial interests of any person). This information would provide
our potential future customers with information regarding our internal
pricing which would prejudice OS’s commercial position in terms of OS
negotiating prices for work we carry out as a supplier.  In addition, it
would provide information to our competitors who would be able to use this
information when competing with OS for future work.

Whilst OS recognises the general public interest in transparency, in this
case we consider that this is outweighed by the harm which such disclosure
would cause to OS’s commercial position.

Internal Review
Your enquiry has been processed according to the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) 2000.  If you are unhappy with our response, you may request
an internal review with our Internal Review Officer by contacting them,
within 40 working days of receipt of our final response to your FOI
request as follows:

Internal Review Officer
Customer Service Centre
Ordnance Survey
Adanac Drive
Southampton
SO16 0AS

E-mail: [2][email address]

Please include the reference number above. You may request an internal
review where you believe Ordnance Survey has:

o Failed to respond to your request within the time limits (normally 20
working days)
o Failed to tell you whether or not we hold the information
o Failed to provide the information you have requested
o Failed to explain the reasons for refusing a request
o Failed to correctly apply an exemption or exception

The Internal Review Officer will not have been involved in the
original decision. They will conduct an independent internal review and
will inform you of the outcome of the review normally within 20 working
days, but exceptionally within 40 working days, in line with the
Information Commissioner’s guidance. 

The Internal Review Officer will either: uphold the original decision,
provide an additional explanation of the exemption/s applied or release
further information, if it is considered appropriate to do so.

Appeal to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
If, following the outcome of the internal review you remain unhappy with
our response, you may raise an appeal, within three months of receiving
our response, with the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Further information can be found on the ICO website (ico.org.uk) or you
may wish to call the ICO helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Thank you for your enquiry.

Kind regards,

Elizabeth Cole

Freedom of Information Officer, Legal Services

[3]cid:image001.jpg@01D4D8F8.ECFBF010

Adanac Drive, Southampton, United Kingdom, SO16 0AS

T: +44 03456 05 05 05

[4]www.os.uk | [5][email address] |

Follow us: [6]Twitter | [7]LinkedIn | [8]YouTube | [9]Instagram |
[10]Facebook

Our values are adventurous, incisive, restless and true.

This email is only intended for the person to whom it is addressed and may
contain confidential information. If you have received this email in
error, please notify the sender and delete this email which must not be
copied, distributed or disclosed to any other person.

Unless stated otherwise, the contents of this email are personal to the
writer and do not represent the official view of Ordnance Survey. Nor can
any contract be formed on Ordnance Survey's behalf via email. We reserve
the right to monitor emails and attachments without prior notice.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Ordnance Survey Limited (Company Registration number 09121572)
Registered Office: Explorer House
Adanac Drive
Southampton SO16 0AS
Tel: 03456 050505
[11]http://www.os.uk

References

Visible links
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2. mailto:[email address]
4. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
5. mailto:[email address]
6. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
7. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
8. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
9. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
10. https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outl...
11. http://www.os.uk/