HL Deb 14 April 1994 vol 553 cc100-2WA
Lord Inglewood

asked Her Majesty's Government:

(a) whether they will simplify the procedures currently in force for identifying national grid numbers of fields in more than one Ordnance Survey map, and (b) why the fees charged by Ordnance Survey agents to farmers are so high.

The Earl of Arran

Responsibility for the subject of this question has been delegated to Ordnance Survey under its Chief Executive, Professor D. W. Rhind. I have asked Professor Rhind to write to my noble friend.

Letter from Professor D. W. Rhind, Director General and Chief Executive of the Ordnance Survey, to Lord Inglewood, dated 8 April 1994:

I have been asked to reply to your question about the numbering of land parcels on Ordnance Survey maps and the prices charged by Ordnance Survey retail agents.

We have given a lot of thought to methods of deriving National Grid parcel numbers but do not feel that we can simplify them any further. All one needs to do is to mark the centre of the part of a field which falls on any one map and then scale off the coordinates using the scale bars printed in the margin of the map. We have recently issued leaflets giving step-by-step guidance on how to do this, examples of which are enclosed. The procedure is actually simpler to do than to explain! If customers for Ordnance Survey large-scale maps have any difficulty, the Network Superplan Agents from whom they buy their maps will be happy to assist them.

I am assuming that the fees to which you refer relate to the area measurement service which was established as part of a one-stop shop scheme to help farmers with their IACS applications in 1993. The precision requirements set by MAFF in connection with the IACS scheme meant that areas had to be measured very carefully. The charge for measuring parcel areas is £70+VAT for up to 4 measurements. This represents the actual cost of the operation to Ordnance Survey plus a reasonable commission for the commercial sector Agent and the return which Ordnance Survey is required to make from all its commercial activities. I believe the resulting charge will bear comparison with that from the private sector for similar professional services. OS Superplan Agents are happy to help customers identify the parcels they need measuring and the maps they need to buy and to arrange for the appropriate field areas to be measured but sometimes, where this process is very prolonged, they feel it is necessary to levy a modest additional consultation fee.

Based on our own estimates and published figures, the total cost of all OS mapping and services to the farming community in 1993–94 seems to have been about 1/300 of the benefit received annually by that community from IACS. You will be interested to know that I commissioned an independent report of OS's performance in relation to the IACS Scheme. A copy is enclosed.

Finally, all of the above describes the current situation. It may be helpful if I indicate what we are attempting to be able to provide in future. By the end of 1995, all of Ordnance Survey's most detailed mapping (covering all of Britain) will be in computer form. This will then enable us to provide site-centred mapping of anywhere in the country, at a scale and in a manner chosen by the customer. Farmers—and all other customers—will then generally need one map where up to four (or even more) were needed previously. This culmination of a 20 year programme of investment in digitising will lead to other benefits—subject to work which we currently propose to carry out from 1996 onwards, unique identifying numbers could then be generated automatically by the computer and the area of each field similarly calculated. In all cases this will obviate the present need for multiple numbers or areas where a field lies across two or more map sheets.

I should be happy to provide any further information you may require about Ordnance Survey activities.