Data request disclaimer

Submission of requests through the Staffordshire Ecological Records online data search request form

Checking the ‘Please go ahead without first raising a quote. (We will contact you should the quote differ from the prices described above)’ box means that Staffordshire Ecological Record may not contact you prior to proceeding with your data search. If the cost of the data search is likely to be different from those outlined in our pricing for commercial data searches here we will contact you in advance with a revised cost.

If you have checked this box in error, please notify us ASAP as we may have proceeded with your data search and you may be charged for the time spent on the data search. Staffordshire Ecological Record reserves the right to request payment for any data search submitted and carried out with a pre-authorised confirmation of go-ahead.

Limitations and restrictions of data supplied by Staffordshire Ecological Record

Any and all data supplied by SER;

  • Must only be used for the purpose for which it was originally supplied.  It may not be used for any other purpose and any re-use of data is strictly prohibited without the express permission of SER.
  • Must be kept safe and secure for the duration of the project/work for which the data has been supplied to you.
  • Must be deleted and/or fully destroyed by you upon completion of the project/work for which SER supplied the data.  No copies must be retained of the said data.

SER reserves the right to request sight of your policies and procedures as to data retention to      ensure the safety and security of all data supplied to you by SER.  If SER is in any way concerned that you are not taking steps to ensure the safety of the data supplied to you, SER reserves its rights to demand the return to it immediately of all data supplied.

Important considerations

  • Any GIS data supplied by SER, where not otherwise covered by Ordnance Survey Standard Form Contractor License (either by SER or a partner organization) must only be used for the purpose for which it was originally requested and must be fully removed from the contractors filing system upon completion of the project.
  • Information supplied by SER is always based on historical data of varying age and is only based upon the records supplied to SER. This should not be seen as an alternative to on site work. Absence of records should not be seen as definitive proof of the absence of the species or habitat in the search area.
  • Mobile species can move and their presence within the search area could be resident (present all year), seasonal (only present for part of the year) or incidental (species just passing through) and certain species are only protected at specific parts of their life-cycle (i.e. the breeding season). All records for any protected species are listed, even those outside the time at which they are protected.
  • Some datasets supplied by SER incur additional restrictions/information.

General comments

Staffordshire Ecological Record strives to supply information which is accurate, up-to-date and relevant and where possible will indicate the limitations of any given dataset. However, SER cannot be responsible for any errors in supplied information or the consequences of their usage unless the client has checked with SER and SER has failed to act on any known errors.

  1. Although SER can analyse and interpret data if required, it must remain impartial and cannot comment on the merits of any change in land use.
  2. Information supplied free-of-charge for educational or private purposes must not be used for commercial purposes.
  3. All reports produced by SER are deemed the copyright of Staffordshire Ecological Record, and SER must be cited or acknowledged on any publication using said information, however, individual records remain the intellectual property of the original recorder and may require additional acknowledgement if requested by SER.

Supply of data

  1. SER data is usually supplied as a combination of Jpeg (for maps), PDF (for citations) and Excel spreadsheet to allow clients to include the data within reports, however, the client should not alter the meanings of any digital data supplied.
  2. Excel data is usually supplied as a species file and a sites file in Excel® format (*.xlsx) – these both include multiple worksheets, one for each category supplied, please ensure you check all worksheets for content.

Species based information

The locations of protected and Biodiversity Action Plan priority species are supplied subject to the following limitations:

  1. Unless otherwise stated, the information relating to species records is as accurate as possible, but is reliant on the quality of the original data supplied to SER. SER cannot be responsible for any errors in the data, nor the consequences of their use – this is particularly relevant to iRecord data.
  2. Unless otherwise stated, personal information is not normally supplied in reports, however, if present, it is deemed confidential under the Data Protection Act and should not be passed to a third party.
  3. Unless otherwise stated, records of badger (Meles meles) and all bat species are deemed confidential and badger records can only be published at reduced resolution (1km precision) even where precise information is supplied by SER for analysis purposes. Under certain circumstances, other species records may be deemed sensitive and need to be handled in a similar fashion.
  4. Species data now includes a Composite Species List covering all species found during the search, however because it is based on 1km sq data, it is likely that records from just outside any search area will also be included in this list (these data would not be included in the full record searches which are based on precise grid references), hence figures may be slightly higher than the individual record searches.
  5. The “Distance from Site” information is only supplied as an estimate, it should not be considered definitive, and for 1km precision records is either based on the centre of the 1km square or omitted entirely.

Site based information

The boundaries of Local Wildlife Sites (=Sites of Biological Importance {SBIs}), Biodiversity Alert Sites (BASs) or Local Geodiversity Sites (=Regionally Important Geological/Geomorphological Sites {RIGS}) are supplied subject to the following limitations:

  1. Site boundaries are as precise as the original survey maps and base mapping allow.
  2. The presence of a marked boundary on supplied maps does not infer any right of public access. Gaining permission to visit is the client’s responsibility.
  3. Site status is conferred by a Grading Committee and is correct at the time of notification. Changes may have occurred since the survey which affect the site’s quality, however, the grading remains in effect until reviewed by the Grading Committee.
  4. The boundaries of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs), other statutory sites and Ancient Woodlands may be included on maps, but are not the property of SER. These are reproduced under licence to Natural England to add value to the report.
  5. Maps produced by SER now use Ordnance Survey OpenData (usually StreetView), or OpenStreetMap as a background image. These can now be further reproduced providing OS OpenData licence is adhered to, please refer to the OS and OpenStreetMap websites for further details.

SER data sources

Data held by SER has been supplied by a large number of recorders, both amateur and professional. The following list includes the main data suppliers whose data may be included within any data search. This list is by no means exhaustive.

•             Bat Conservation Trust
•             British Trust for Ornithology (via WMBC)
•             Butterfly Conservation (West Midlands Branch)
•             Cannock Chase District Council
•             East Staffordshire Borough Council
•             GeoConservation Staffordshire
•             Lichfield District Council
•             Natural England*
•             Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council
•             North Staffordshire Field Club*
•             South Staffordshire Council
•             South-east Staffordshire Bat Group*
•             Stafford Borough Council
•             Staffordshire Badger Group
•             Staffordshire Bat Group
•             Staffordshire County Council
•             Staffordshire Flora Project
•             Staffordshire Fungus Group
•             Staffordshire Invertebrate Group
•             Staffordshire Mammal Group
•             Staffordshire Moorland District Council
•             Staffordshire Moth Group
•             Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
•             Stoke-on-Trent City Council
•             Tamworth Borough Council*
•             West Midland Bird Club (Staffordshire Branch)

It should not be necessary to approach any of the above organisations for data relating to Staffordshire, however, if you require advice on any particular taxon/group, then the specialist  group should be approached, not SER.

Staffordshire Ecological Record acts as County Recorder for the organisations in bold.

Organisations followed by an asterisk (*) are either no-longer operating or no-longer part of the SER Partnership.

Limitations of specific datasets

These may or may not be relevant to the data search you are receiving, but refer to the Source column in the supplied species information

  • BCT/NE Bat Roost Reports: Data from this source are received by SER without any site name apart from the postcode, therefore SER is unable to verify these locations are correct. Refer to separate disclaimer for these data.
  • Staffordshire Badger Group: Data from the Badger Group should always be considered confidential, and under no circumstances should the full details of any sighting be reproduced in reports or passed to any third party. This restriction originates from the Dataset’s copyright owner and as such is not negotiable and excluded from being released under the Freedom of Information Act (2000) or the Environmental Information Regulations (2004).
  • iRecord: iRecord is an online recording system maintained by the national Biological Records Centre (http://www.brc.ac.uk/irecord). This collected sightings entered by a variety of recorders including expertise from local amateur experts to the general public. It is managed by a network of verifiers whose responsibility is to check the identifications. Any iRecord sightings included in the accompanying spreadsheet have the ‘RecordStatus’ field as follows:
    a.           ‘Validation’ have been checked by a nationally approved expert
    b.            ‘original’ or ‘unconfirmed’ have not been checked and therefore should not be relied upon if it involved an important decision, they should only be considered indicative!
  • iNaturalist: iNaturalist is similar to iRecord in that it is an online recording platform, however iNatrualist differs in that it is in use globally rather than just in the UK. Records which are verified in iNaturalist are now imported into iRecord and these are downloaded with lists of iRecord data to the SER database.

We have noticed a number of iRecord and iNaturalist sighting have erroneous grid references, unfortunately many records are not supplied with a site name, for these records, the grid reference cannot be checked nor confirmed – definitely erroneous records have been excluded from the attached spreadsheet (or if possible corrected), but iRecord data must always be treated with caution, if you need specific confirmation, please contact the SER office.

Supply of data to SER

Under CIEEM guidelines  it is expected that following the completion of surveys, all relevant biodiversity data must be submitted to SER, unless the client has expressly refused permission for this. SER will accept most spreadsheet formats.


For future enquiries consideration for discounts will be considered for records supplied in the above ways.