Charging Policy

TVERC charges for carrying out data searches, habitat surveys, digital mapping of sites and habitats, species surveys and data analysis projects. Charges for data searches and licences are based on the time involved in managing, processing and extracting the data and producing presentable results and not for the data itself. Our charges are carefully set at a rate to ensure we can continue to provide a service now and into the future for the benefit of our environment.

TVERC may also make a charge for time taken to provide information and advice, though this can be waived in some cases, for local groups or students for instance. In these cases we will invite a donation to cover the time taken to collate the data (from £30 for a simple data search). This is not compulsory but will help TVERC to continue to provide our services. 

Why do TVERC charge for data searches and other work?

The data TVERC hold in our database takes time to collect and manage. This work is carried out by both volunteers and paid staff to ensure the data we hold and provide to you is of a high quality and we can keep our charges as low as possible. Our funding partners (local authorities and the Environment Agency) cover the cost of part of this work through annual funding agreements. Currently the only way for private sector organisations, individuals or community groups to contribute is by paying for data services at the point of use, when they request a data search.  As a non-profit organisation, TVERC uses our income to sustain the services we provide to the local recording community, who in turn share their data with us, so we can share it with you!

The cost of collating and managing the TVERC database is spread between all our funding sources, which results in economies of scale for everyone:

Funding Partners - 40%
Data searches & licences - 40%  (equivalent to about 0.075% contribution per data search)
Projects - 20%

 

Funding Partners

The Environment Agency contributes a varying amount each year, depending on the available funding and their required deliverables. They are charged the standard rate for data licences with any additional deliverables charged at the partner rate of £320 per day.

Local Authority contributions towards the annual cost of collating and managing the TVERC database are based on the geographic area and population size of their administrative area. Local authorities with a larger geographic area are likely to have more data associated with them so get a greater benefit of TVERC’s services. However, local authorities with a higher population are likely to have more pressure for competing land-uses and therefore more potential conflicts between development and the natural environment so have a greater need of TVERC’s services.

Additional work is charged at a rate of £320per day.

Service charges

Data searches

GIS data licences

Data analysis and ecological surveys

Charges for data analysis and presentation projects are calculated on a daily rate  for the time taken to complete the project work. The daily rate includes a contribution to the annual costs of collating and managing the TVERC database. The standard daily rate is £595 for commercial organisations who are not Partners and £320 for not-for-profit organisations and Partners signed up to the MoU. The lower rate for Partners reflects the fact that they have already made a contribution to the annual costs of collating and managing the TVERC database.