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PAY UP TO SEE WHERE YOU ARE. EU Slams UK Over Maps "Right to Know" Case

01 Aug 1998

The European Commission has sharply criticised the UK Government in a test case for freedom of environmental information.

Friends of the Earth complained to the Commission after the Ordnance Survey (OS),Britain's national mapping agency, tried to charge FOE more than 365,000 for digital mapping base-data of the country. The complaint was first made by FOE four years ago.

FOE argues that the OS attempt to charge for mapping data breaches the European Directive on freedom of access to information on the environment (Directive 90/313/EEC).365,000 is way beyond the "reasonable costs" established under the Directive. This view has been supported by the European Commission which has put the UK Government on notice to answer FOE's concerns, or face potential legal challenge in the European Court of Justice.

The OS pricing policy has been set by the Treasury under a policy called the "Government-held Tradeable Information Initiative". This policy demands that Departments and agencies sell information collected at taxpayers expense, if they think that the data has commercial value. The Government's recent White Paper on the "Right to Know" suggested that such tradeable information should be excluded from the promised Freedom of Information legislation. FOE strongly opposed this exemption in its comments on the White Paper "Your Right to Know".

Commenting, FOE's Environment Data Manager Susan Pipes said:
"The Government cannot get away with charging such extortionate costs for access to basic environment information. We face a scheme to turn our national mapping agency into a profit centre. New Labour took office promising to place the environment at the centre of its policies and to establish real freedom of information- not to charge the earth for it."

Notes to Editors
Notice of the Commission's criticism of the UK Government came in a letter to FOE lawyer Peter Roderick from Mr George Kremlis, head of the unit in the Commission's Environment Directorate which deals with the enforcement of Community Law (copy available).

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