The introduction of our Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) for England and Wales last year has meant that officially recognised Search and Rescue (SAR) teams have full access to PSMA datasets, which are free at the point of use. The ground-breaking 10-year agreement between government and Ordnance Survey came into effect last April and allows the majority of public sector bodies in England and Wales, regardless of size, to use centrally funded geographic datasets.

The PSMA is helping the public sector to make vital efficiencies and improvements to service deliveries such as planning waste services, asset management, land development and improving healthcare services.

In the case of Hampshire Search and Rescue, it’s made access to our data simpler, quicker to get hold of and readily available on multiple platforms. It includes 1:25 000 and 1:10 000 scale mapping that teams can then print directly at their control point and is proving vital to emergency response organisations such as Hampshire Search and Rescue.  Find out more in this video:

You can find out more about Hampshire SAR from a volunteer’s perspective in our previous blog post.