Background

The Geospatial Commission was set up in 2018, originally within the Cabinet Office, as a self-described "expert committee" responsible for setting the UK's geospatial strategy and coordinating public sector geospatial activity.

The GC's Board of Commissioners met for the first time in July 2019. Minutes from meetings held up until April 2024 are published on the GOV.UK website.

A year ago the Geospatial Commission was merged into the revamped Government Digital Service (GDS) within the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), and the Board of Commissioners was disbanded. The Board met for the last time in January 2025. Papers from its meetings after April 2024 have not been published.

FOI request and response

For the sake of completeness I asked DSIT to disclose the minutes and papers from the Board's final meetings. DSIT responded today with copies of agendas and minutes from three meetings: on 24 July 2024, 29 October 2024, and 25 January 2025.

You can download all of the disclosed information from my website: DSIT_Geospatial_Commission_minutes_FOI2025_03173.zip (5.1 MB), or use the following links to access individual documents:

24 July 2024: agenda, minutes
29 October 2024: agenda, minutes
25 January 2025: agenda, minutes

Personal data has been redacted by DSIT (somewhat idiosyncratically).

Postcode Address File (PAF) and the National Data Library (NDL)

Most of the information in minutes from the final meetings of the Geospatial Commission's Board has been overtaken by events and may be of only historical interest. But I will highlight a couple of items.

The minutes from the meeting on 24 July 2024 include the following about the Postcode Address File:

SU raised PAF and the acquisition of Royal Mail. He then noted that the USO framework may not require Royal Mail to take the responsibility for PAF. Have we as the GC considered seeking commitments as part of the NSIA process. JC confirmed he had spoken to postal policy, UKGI and No.10, but then the election was called so this has now been moved to the list of things to focus on. We will continute to raise this. DBT have been FOI's several times so incoming Ministers will be aware of this area.

SU is Steve Unger, one of the Commissioners. NSIA is the National Security and Investment Act. In October 2024, Cabinet Office minister Abena Oppong-Asare MP avoided answering a written question in Parliament about whether PAF was considered "critical national infrastructure" under NSIA.

The minutes from the meeting on 29 October 2024 include some discussion of the National Data Library (NDL), which was then (as now, arguably) a vaguely-defined commitment in the Labour Party's 2024 election manifesto:

BC provided an overview of the National Data Library (NDL) paper, and highlighting the three areas of current engagement that the GC was having with the NDL team:

  • Overall policy of what the NDL should be,
  • Cross- governments governance- how to set up a programme
  • Specific projects they could tie into the NDL to demonstrate progress and tie in some ideas. This is the most urgent and is the area we have been feeding into the most.

On this final point CMG added some further detail and said we have been involved in setting the direction of the NDL and that it should have a strong geospatial component to it. They are looking to identify programmes where quick progress can be made and start testing hypothesise for the NDL to start to scale, so we have been looking at ways that we can connect in things we have been doing and can scale in partnership.

Relationships are in a good place, and we will be working with the NDL team going forward into the next round of SR bidding.

BC and CMG are (I think) Ben Carson and Cathering Carter-McGrath from the Commission Unit, and SR means Spending Review. The most notable point here is perhaps the expectation that the NDL should have a strong geospatial component.

I am following up with DSIT for more information about the NDL paper and various other papers referenced in the minutes.