A new selection of location datasets and tools have been released by the Ordnance Survey (OS), as part of the Public Sector Geospatial Agreement (PSGA), to help deliver improved public services and speed up emergency response times.

The Public Sector Geospatial Agreement is a 10-year contract between the UK government and Ordnance Survey. The contract delivers geospatial data to public sector members to support the provision of critical services to the public.

The OS Emergency Services Gazetteer (ESG) is one of the new tools. As a large and maintained database of locations, containing 1.3 million features such as names, places, and objects—including motorways, road junctions, and roundabouts—it aims to improve the way emergency services respond to and manage incidents.

The OS ESG was developed in collaboration with the blue light community, designed to give responders with the precise location information they need to act quickly during emergencies.

The other new tool is the OS Multi-modal Routing Network, which brings all OS transport information together in one place for routing applications. Local authorities can use the data to plan safe routes to schools and colleges, and emergency services can improve their emergency planning for incidents at specific locations.

The release also includes enhancements to the OS National Geographic Database (NGD), the single store of all Ordnance Survey’s data for Great Britain, such as:

• Buildings data, so users can develop a better understanding about the energy performance of buildings.
• New field boundary and land cover information, which can be beneficial for a range of environmental sector customers, environment agencies across England, Scotland, and Wales, major landowners and farmers, as well as both local and central government in delivering net-zero ambitions.
• And enhancements like the tram track attribution, showing where trams are present on the road network, which can be beneficial for road safety and streetworks.

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The PGSA was first established in April 2020, with Scotland joining the agreement in May. It provides access to new and existing data via the OS Data Hub, including delivery of data via API and downloads. Over its term, the PSGA is set to deliver approximately 70 new datasets.