Data search pricing in 2026/27

Effective from 1st April 2026, Thames Valley Environmental Records Centre (TVERC) will be implementing updated charges to reflect a 15% increase across our data search services, with some individual components rising by a higher amount where previous pricing no longer reflected the actual cost of delivering the service.

Like many organisations, we are experiencing significant increases in the costs of running our service, particularly staffing, data management, and the technical infrastructure required to maintain a high‑quality evidence base. Over recent years these operational costs have continued to rise, and we must ensure our pricing adequately covers the work involved in collecting, curating, processing, and supplying high‑quality biodiversity data for Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

We have kept the increase to our core charges as low as possible, but some specific elements of the service required larger adjustments because they were historically under‑priced relative to the resources needed to produce them. Updating these prices ensures we can continue to provide an efficient, professional service to all customers while maintaining the integrity of the data we supply.

TVERC remains committed to maintaining a fast, efficient service. Standard searches will continue to be completed within 3 working days. For those needing quicker results, our fast-track service guarantees results by the next working day, and our ultrafast service provides results on the same working day (guaranteed only for non-complex data search requests received by 12 noon). We will also continue to offer discounted rates or waive the fees when the data is used for conservation purposes.

Alongside the pricing update, we are also enhancing our Biodiversity report which provides data on species, habitats and sites by including our new Local Nature Recovery Strategy (LNRS) report, offering greater value and improved insights for our users. This tailored report highlights opportunities in and around your site, helping you identify actions that align with local biodiversity priorities. Whether you’re planning development, land management, or conservation projects, this resource ensures your efforts contribute to nature recovery.

We appreciate your understanding and support as we implement these changes. If you have any questions or need further information, please do not hesitate to get in touch (tverc@oxfordshire.gov.uk).

The new charges can be found below. From the 1st April you will find the updated charges on our Data Search Charges page, or you can use our Cost Calculator to check estimated price of specific combinations of data. In addition to the dataset fees shown below, there is a £86 base fee for all data searches.

Why request data from TVERC?

Fundamental to the conservation of biodiversity is evidence. Knowing where species and habitats are, and how that’s changed over time, helps inform where best to create and manage habitats to restore nature, how to ensure species are protected from the impacts of development, or what steps to take to prevent future declines. With over 5 million species records, extensive data on habitats and information about Local Wildlife and Geological site, TVERC is a data hub for Oxfordshire and Berkshire, providing this critical information to local decision-makers. You can find out more about TVERC data here.

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. TVERC charges for the time involved in managing, processing, and extracting the data and producing presentable results and not for the data itself. You can find out more about our data charging policy here.

If you have any suggestions of things you'd like to see included in these, we encourage you to get in touch (tverc@oxfordshire.gov.uk).