The Public Sector Mapping Agreement (PSMA) was announced as an intention in March 2010, and has now resulted in a transition plan for its implementation. The full PSMA transition plan is available for download as PDF.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps said "We're opening the door to a world of government information that will allow the good ideas of ordinary people to become innovative digital solutions that improve public services."

By having this free access to key mapping data, public bodies will now be able to work more effectively and closely with local private parties and citizens in creating local applications and services.

From the press release "The PSMA will provide free access for public sector bodies to all the national mapping agency's core datasets from April 2011. The new agreement will replace costly and inefficient contracts that many parts of the public sector have with Ordnance Survey, and triple the number of bodies that have access to the mapping data.

Economic analysis shows increased productivity associated with free mapping information increased the real output of local government by over £230m in 2008/09, and the PSMA is expected to multiply these effects further."