Memorandum by Ordnance Survey (VOT 18)
BACKGROUND
1. Ordnance Survey is Britain's national
mapping organisation. We maintain the definitive geographical
framework for Great Britain, as well as capturing and marketing
a wide range of geographical information. Our Director General
is the United Kingdom Government's official adviser on geographical
information. Ordnance Survey is a non-ministerial government department
and Executive Agency, and since 1999 has operated as a Trading
Fund.
2. Ordnance Survey surveys and collects
data on roads, buildings, addresses, boundaries, water courses,
coastlines, height and many other aspects of the landscape of
Britain. In urban areas this data is collected at a nominal scale
of 1:1250. The data is managed within a seamless national geographic
database. Although traditionally supplied to the user as paper
maps, this data is now supplied routinely as digital information
which can be readily analysed, manipulated and linked to other
information. The digital database of the surface of Britain underpins
a range of mapping and data products, the most important of which
is known as OS MasterMaph. The database is updated on a daily
basis with up to 5,000 changes being added to the database each
day with a target that all important change on the ground is incorporated
into the database within six months of the change occurring. It
forms a valuable resource for government in this country underpinning
around £100 billion of economic activity.
3. Ordnance Survey has licencing agreements
in place with local government, central government and others
in the public and private sectors for the supply of digital products
to support their activities. Government is a major user of geographic
information for policy-making, planning, operations, monitoring
and analysis. The geographic perspective and the ability to cross
refer data on a geographic basis add considerable value to the
business of government. Geographic information of the appropriate
quality and up-to-dateness can deliver significant benefits in
terms of:
— ability to share information on a
common geographical base;
— reduction and elimination of fragmentation
and duplication of effort; and
— improved decision making.
ORDNANCE SURVEY
COMMENTS
4. Whilst we do not have a direct involvement
in the management of the electoral process, we would like to offer
the following comments in relation to the operational aspects
of voter registration.
5. The locations of places are generally
more stable than the locations of people. People, generally, are
born, move around and die at a much faster rate than houses are
built and demolished. However, both people and property have a
lifecycle which needs to be reflected in the quality of the voter
registration data which is collected.
6. Ordnance Survey is focused on the collection
and dissemination of information on location or place. In the
context of voter registration we are specifically concerned with
addresses. Generally speaking, voters residing in this country
tend to live at premises where mail is delivered and so has a
postal address. As a result, the Royal Mail's Postcode Address
File (PAF) will indicate where the vast majority of the voters
live. Ordnance Survey incorporates the PAF into the national geographic
database and provides a highly accurate link to where the address
is located. A co-ordinate with a resolution of 10 centimetres
is attached to every entry in PAF such that the co-ordinate lies
within the property as depicted on the map or in the data.
7. We improve the quality of PAF in an iterative
way by matching PAF data to the map and resolving mismatches such
as:
— The address exists in PAF but the
property to which it refers has been demolished.
— There is property on the ground,
and in the database, which receives mail but there is no entry
in PAF.
— The spelling and style of addresses
in PAF doesn't match the street name in Ordnance Survey data.
8. This data is made available to day by
Ordnance Survey as OSMasterMap Address Layer or ADDRESS-POINT.
The data also provides a unique identifier for each located address
which can then be cross-referenced to other datasets which contain
data relating to the property. Ordnance Survey address data products
are made available to local and central government bodies through
existing arrangements as noted in paragraph 3 above.
9. Once the location of the voters has been
established a process is required to track and monitor voters
movements. By linking voter information to a high quality and
well maintained address database, this process should also be
able to locate both existing and new property where voters live
in now and in the future. This information will assist in the
location of future polling stations and election planning. By
further linking address information to Ward and Constituency Boundaries,
information about the impact of changes to constituency sizes
can be modelled. The web-site http://www.election-maps.co.uk is
managed by Ordnance Survey as resource for Parliament, Government
and organisations with a key interest in electoral planning.
10. Such "joining-up" of datasets
and processes is part of the now well established principle of
improved and integrated government and there have been a number
of initiatives to support this, which are described below. However,
as a general point, the Select Committee may like to consider
as part of their Inquiry whether the current processes for joining-up
government are adequate to support the changes in voter registration
envisaged.
11. We have been working across central
and local government with various agencies to exploit the potential
power of the address database in voter registration. Firstly,
and directly relevant to voter registration, is our work with
the Electoral Commission exploring how geographic information
may be able to help them achieve their objectives. This has included
the possibility of using geographic information to determine the
best location of polling stations with regard to access and public
transport. In addition we are looking at the possibility of providing
citizens with this information on-line, and provide a postcode
to ward search facility so voters can find out who their candidates
are. Provision of citizen based services by government using Ordnance
Survey data is just one way of exploiting the benefits of effective
geographic information.
12. Secondly, and crucial to locating voters
satisfactorily and enhancing Census management, is the work we
are doing in partnership with the ODPM, the Office for National
Statistics, Land Registry, Registers of Scotland (RoS), Valuation
Office Agency (VoA), Improvement and Development Agency of Local
Government (IDeA) and the Royal Mail to look at the creation and
maintenance of a definitive National Spatial Address Infrastructure
(NSAI) comprising high quality addresses and property information.
For various historical, practical and operational reasons, there
are a number of differing address and property lists and databases
held by various local and central government bodies which are
not maintained in parallel effectively. This causes considerable
expense and inefficiency in government processes. The Acacia Project
managed by Land Registry, Ordnance Survey, IDeA, RoS, VoA and
Royal Mail generated some very useful research and recommendations
that are being taken forward by the current partnership work referred
to at the beginning of this paragraph. It is hoped that concrete
proposals will emerge from this partnership work in the near future.
An effective NSAI will help the voter registration further by
facilitating links to other datasets held by other parts of government.
13. The use of unique identifiers for well
maintained addresses will be vital in efficient and effective
cross referencing of datasets throughout central government, local
government and the private sector. The majority of data held in
government is related to a location, predominantly, but not always,
a location with a postal address.
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