Archaeologists, registers and who may excavate

Archaeologist competence in planning is controlled by the council rather than by a licence. In England there is no statutory licence to practise archaeology and nobody is barred from digging a hole on their own land for ordinary reasons. Control comes through the planning condition, and through the archaeological adviser who writes the brief, approves the written scheme of investigation and signs off the report. That adviser, usually the county archaeologist or a borough equivalent, effectively decides who may excavate on your site by deciding whose written scheme they are prepared to approve. Understanding that is the difference between a smooth programme and a stalled one.

No licence, but a gatekeeper

Scheduled monuments are the exception that proves the rule. Works affecting a scheduled monument need scheduled monument consent under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, granted by the Secretary of State on advice, and carrying out works without it is a criminal offence.

Everything else runs through planning. Where a site has archaeological potential, the authority imposes conditions requiring a programme of archaeological work to be carried out in accordance with a written scheme of investigation approved in writing beforehand. That condition is where the control lives.

Northern Ireland operates an excavation licensing system, so if you work across jurisdictions do not assume the English position applies.

How the archaeological adviser controls the appointment

Most English planning authorities do not employ an archaeologist. They take advice from a county council historic environment team or a shared service, which also maintains the historic environment record, the database of known sites, finds and previous investigations.

That adviser does four things that shape your appointment. They advise whether a desk-based assessment or evaluation is needed before determination. They write or approve the brief setting out the required scope. They review and approve the written scheme of investigation, which names the contractor and the project team. And they monitor the fieldwork and sign off the resulting report.

In practice they will decline to approve a scheme from a contractor whose competence they do not recognise. Most require the contractor to be a registered organisation with the professional institute, or to demonstrate equivalent standards. Ask the adviser what they expect before you tender, because discovering it after you have appointed is a wasted mobilisation.

Registered organisations and individual accreditation

The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists operates two parallel systems that often get confused.

Registered organisations are corporate members that have been inspected against the institute's standards, operate a quality management system and are subject to periodic review. Registration attaches to the organisation, not to any individual within it.

Individual accreditation runs in grades reflecting responsibility and experience, with the more senior grades expected for project management and site direction. Individual members are bound by the institute's code of conduct, which includes duties about competence, honesty in reporting and acting within the limits of one's expertise.

Both matter and neither substitutes for the other. A registered organisation can still put an inexperienced supervisor on your site, and an individually accredited archaeologist working alone may lack the archive and specialist infrastructure a complex site needs.

The institute also publishes standards and guidance for each type of work: desk-based assessment, field evaluation, excavation, watching brief and historic building recording. A written scheme that does not reference the applicable standard is a warning sign, and the same point about independence that applies across technical reporting applies here, as set out in technical report conflict of interest.

The written scheme of investigation

This is the controlling document, and it is approved before anything happens on site.

A workable scheme covers the aims and research objectives, the methodology including trench locations or stripping areas, the staffing structure with named roles, the specialist team for environmental samples, finds, human remains and scientific dating, the health and safety and site constraints, the post-excavation assessment and analysis programme, the reporting and publication arrangements, the archive deposition arrangements, and the timetable.

Two sections are routinely too thin. The specialist provision, because nobody knows what will be found until it is found, and the archive arrangements, for the reason set out below.

Allow proper time for approval. The adviser is advising several authorities, and a scheme submitted a week before the intended start date will not be approved in a week.

Fieldwork, specialists and reporting

Supervision on site is the quality control that matters most. A project manager carries overall responsibility, a site director or supervisor runs the excavation day to day, and specialists are brought in as the material requires.

Human remains need their own arrangements, including a licence for the removal of remains and a plan for examination and reinterment or deposition. Treasure finds carry reporting obligations under the Treasure Act 1996 and a defined process, and finds generally should be recorded in a way consistent with the national recording schemes.

Reporting runs in stages: a fieldwork report, a post-excavation assessment deciding what merits further analysis, then analysis and publication where the results justify it. The condition is normally discharged on the report rather than on the completion of fieldwork, which catches developers who assume the archaeology is finished when the machines leave.

Where the work stops at a desk study or trial trenching, the documents are an archaeological desk-based assessment and an archaeological field evaluation, and the competence requirements differ between them.

Archive deposition as a programme risk

This is the part nobody budgets for, and it has become a real constraint.

Excavation produces an archive of records and finds that has to be deposited with a museum or other receiving body willing to accept it. Many museums across England have limited or no capacity to take new archaeological archives, and some have closed to new deposits entirely.

The practical consequence is that the receiving body has to be identified, and an accession number obtained, before fieldwork starts rather than after. A written scheme that says the archive will be deposited with an appropriate repository, without naming one, is storing up a problem that surfaces two years later when the discharge of condition application is refused.

Budget for it as well. Receiving bodies charge deposition fees based on the volume of material, and those charges have risen.

Briefing, programming and the desk-based author

The author of a desk-based assessment needs different skills from a site director: historic environment record research, map regression, aerial photograph interpretation, documentary work and an ability to write a reasoned assessment of significance. Fieldwork experience helps but is not the central competence.

Programme the work in the right order. The desk-based assessment informs whether evaluation is needed. Evaluation, where required on a sensitive site, is often expected before determination rather than after, because the authority needs to understand what is there before deciding. Mitigation, whether preservation in situ through design changes or preservation by record through excavation, is then secured by condition.

And brief properly. A one-line instruction to do the archaeology produces a quotation nobody can compare. Send the adviser's brief, the site boundary, the proposed foundation design, the ground investigation results and the programme, and ask for a fee proposal against the written scheme stages. Reviewers listed in the professional directory can review a draft before it goes to the adviser.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it. Archaeological field evaluation and excavation are work councils expect from a suitably qualified author, and professional review is strongly advised.

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