Datasearch Terms of Service

• Biological species recording is largely undertaken by committed naturalists on a voluntary basis and on land with public access. Recording is much more rarely undertaken for planning and development purposes, or such data subsequently provided to centralised biological recording specialists, the County Recorders. Desk studies can therefore only ever provide guidance on what is already known about the species recorded in an area, and absence of species records for a search area does not mean they may not occur. For any site with potential nature conservation significance a full ecological site appraisal should be undertaken and species surveys carried out to complement the information contained in the datasearch report.
• Taxonomic coverage of the data is either of the whole county or part county depending on taxonomic group and is being added to all the time.
• Records for all the 1km squares crossed by a search area will be included, because in many cases the original records will only be have recorded at that resolution.

• The Essex Field Club’s County Recorders compile, maintain and verify the primary non-bird biological databases for the county. Ownership of the data remains with the original recorders, groups and organisations which provide data to the County Recorders, and the EFC has its own associated rights on the work in creating and managing the database and in the huge amount of work which goes into verifying and validating the data included in the database. In all respects copyrights shall remain vested in such parties notwithstanding any payments made.
• Where site boundaries are mapped in reports on Ordnance Survey these are under an Ordnance Survey OS OpenData and Open Government Licence .

• The EFC does not guarantee the accuracy of any information supplied and shall have no liability for any loss, damage or expense incurred as the result of reliance on any information supplied.
• Since many records may be recorded at 1km resolution, all 1km squares which are crossed by the search area are included in the datasearch results.
• The EFC can only provide information based on the data held by us. In particular, the absence of records for a species does not necessarily indicate that the species itself is absent, merely that there has been no survey for the species, we have not received records for it or that these data are not yet available in a suitable format. Nevertheless these data provide the most comprehensive available for the county.

• When publishing information derived from these data, the Essex Field Club and/or other data provider and the date of receipt must be acknowledged.
• Ownership of these data remains with the original copyright holder, group, data provider and the EFC and resale or transfer to third parties is strictly prohibited. The data must not be added to a permanent database without the prior permission of the EFC. After use for its current purpose, the data must be deleted from your files and those of any subcontracted company or person/s. If you wish to retain these data for future use then you can apply to the EFC for the costs of an extended licence.
• If data are put into the public domain as part of a desk study to support a planning application, then the data use restrictions must be included.
• The data held by EFC are updated regularly and will become out-of-date. If you intend to use these data after a period of six months please contact us to confirm that we have no new records.

Charges

• Commercial organisations and Consultancies are charged for the time it takes to extract, analyse and supply data, as well a contribution towards the very large amount of time taken by our County Recorders, members, other specialists and naturalists in the recording and verification of data, data entry, data validation and subsequent data management.
• If your datasearch request is not estimated to find any records in your search area we will not make a charge (in line with the regional Standard Minimum Service guidelines for Local Records Centres in the East of England). In these circumstances we suggest that you either try a larger search area or contact us to see whether we are able to provide records for your desk study.
• If you choose to pay on-line using Google Checkout at the time you confirm your order there is a 5% discount. Otherwise a proforma option allows for payment by cheque, with payment terms within 30 days of receipt of order.
• We can provide an express service with a turnaround of a maximum of 3 working days, which you can select this as part of your order request. The option carries a 10% premium which will be included in your total.
• Non-commercial enquiries should contact us to discuss detailed data requirements, with the reason for your data request and exact details of what you would like included in your search. Non-commercial enquiries will usually not involve a charge, but you will be required to sign and return a data provision agreement.

Payment

• If payment is not made online using Google Checkout, then it must be made by cheque payable to the 'Essex Field Club' and send to the address on the invoice. The Essex Field Club is unable to accept payment by BACS.
• Payment Terms are in full to be received within 30 days from the Invoice Date. If a reminder invoice has to be sent and payment is not received within 14 days then an interest and administrative charge of 10% will be added.

Service turnaround

• We aim to complete searches within 10 working days, although more complicated searches may take longer.
• The express service provides a turnaround of a maximum of 3 working days.