The Great Data Robbery

and what we can do about it

Dr Robert Barr OBEManchester Geomatics, ODUG and University of Liverpool

AGI Showcase North – FERA 14th November 2013

manchester.geomatics THEORY INTO PRACTICE

Where I’m going…..

• Addresses a public good?• The legislative history• The slippery slope• The economic case • PAF in numbers• The Crown Jewels• The bad news• The guilty parties• So what’s to be done?

Source: David Heyes, Aligned Assets, presentation 7th November 2011

The slippery slope

• 1970s Marginal cost distribution of PAF on computer tapes• 1980s Low cost distribution on CD• 1990s AddressPoint pricing 100 x PAF per address• 2000s Local Government’s public private partnership with

Intelligent Addressing• 2000s Ordnance Survey £ 20m settlement with AA• ErnestMarples.com forced to close• 2010s Formation of GeoPlace as a for profit LLP• 2010s Royal Mail Pinpoint escapade• 2013 PAF SOLD TO PRIVATE SECTOR (weakly regulated)

PAF

PAF in numbers

• Records: approx. 28,000,000• Fields: approx. 30• Changes per annum: approx. 500,000 – 1 million• New build changes approx. 330,000• New build changes provided by LAs approx. 250,000• Payment to LA’s approx. £250,000 p.a.• Total claimed costs £ 24.5 million• Allowed profit 10%• Revenue approx. £ 27 million

OS in numbers

• Revenue (2012/13) £141.9 million• Profit before exceptional items £ 32.3 million• Operating cost £ 109.6 million

• Approximately 4.5 times the alleged cost of maintiaing and distributing PAF

• The size of the task:

Source: Vanessa Lawrence ‘Ordnance Survey: underpinning the decision-making of Great Britain’ 27th July 2013

Source: Vanessa Lawrence ‘Ordnance Survey: underpinning the decision-making of Great Britain’ 27th July 2013

ONS National Address Register in numbers:• Approximately 27 million dwelling addresses compiled

from cross matching NLPG, AddressPoint, PAF and VOA data against OS MasterMap

• Over 350 field staff ground-checked 15 % of addresses.• LAs asked to check an average of 500 addresses each• Results of census not challenged on address grounds.• Total cost approx. £10.5 million• File subject to data “sharing” agreement destroyed after

use• Copy of file “reverse-engineered” to improve OS

AddressBase

Bonkers!

Bonkers!

Bonkers!

• ShEx – The Shareholder Executive• Responsible for the publicly owned shares in Royal Mail

• Were aware of the misleading Telegraph story prior to flotation

• Informed the Telegraph that the numbers were wrong – but wouldn’t say what the right numbers might be

• Did not insist that the Telegraph print a correction

The man who wanted to open PAF

The Right Hon Francis Maude MP

The man who sold PAF

The Right Hon Michael Fallon MP

The man who let him

The Right Hon Dr Vince Cable MP

The man who made him let him

The Right Hon David Cameron MP

The woman they sold it to

Moya Greene

The woman they sold it to

Moya Greene

The Italian Job

The Canadian Job ?

Conclusion

• Price of PAF is not “reasonable”• Royal Mail are engaging in price gouging under the

cloak of commercial confidentiality• A Public Sector Information asset has been privatised

for private gain• The public have been robbed of an asset, which is now

being held hostage to extract what is effectively a private tax on address usage.

• Geoplace LLP and Ordnance Survey are colluding in this activity – possibly with a view to future privatisation

So what is to be done?

• Persuade Royal Mail Group shareholders that the pain of hanging on to PAF will not be worth the gain

• Outline the commercial advantage to RMG of releasing PAF as Open Data

• Seek judicial review of Royal Mail’s compliance with the “reasonable clause” in 2000 and 2001 Postal Services Acts

• Ask for Office for Fair trading review of Royal Mail’s monopoly pricing

So what is to be done?

• Examine the status of the postcode data in current open datasets for commercial re-use:

• CodePoint Open• ONS Postcode directory• NROSH(National Register of Social Housing)• Land Registry price paid data• Companies House addresses• VAT Register

• Create an open Postcode Street concordance• Create additional tools to address and Postcode

Open Street Map

So what is to be done?

• Examine Royal Mail’s costs forensically to justify the cost of the public sector PAF Licence

• Could that funding be enough to incentivise an Open PAF?

• Examine the effect of Open Addressing elsewhere in the world

• Observe World Bank, UPU and UN addressing initiatives

• Maintain the pressure on Government • Make PAF An election issue!

That’s It!Bob Barr

Manchester Geomatics and Liverpool University

robert_barr@manchestergeomatics.com