§ Mr. Ieuan Wyn JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will arrange for the Director General of Ordnance Survey to ensure(a) that all areas of United Kingdom farmland are mapped and (b) the establishment of an emergency Ordnance Survey telephone helpline to assist farmers experiencing mapping difficulties in completing their IACS forms.
§ Mr. BaldryOrdnance Survey has surveyed and mapped all mountain and moorland areas of Great Britain at a scale of 1:10,000 and all other rural areas at a scale of 1:2,500. This mapping, which is based on the national grid and is available in a variety of forms, is maintained by Ordnance Survey, but is not commercially viable to revive the map of rural and remote areas as intensively as those of urban areas.
Some 400 outlets have been set up by Ordnance Survey to help farmers obtain the necessary maps and information to complete their IACS forms; these include Ordnance Surveys superplan agents, Iand agents who have been granted extended copyright licences for the purpose, Ordnance Survey's own field offices, the Welsh Office and ADAS in Wales and the Scottish agricultural college in Scotland. In addition, staff at Ordnance Survey headquarters in Southampton are answering over 200 telephone inquiries from farmers each day using sophisticated helpline facilities.