Briefing an ecologist: the scope of works to send

An ecology survey scope of works brief is a page and a half of text and two drawings. Send that, and three ecologists will quote on the same basis and you can compare the numbers. Send a postcode and a question about cost, and you will get three different assumptions, three different prices and no way of knowing which is right.

The brief is also where you protect the programme. An ecologist who knows your submission date can tell you in the first phone call whether it is achievable, which is far better than finding out in October that the emergence surveys needed to start in May.

Information to send before asking for a fee

Everything here takes half an hour to assemble and saves a week of email.

• The site address, postcode and a central grid reference
• A location plan with the application boundary marked in red
• The existing site layout, and the proposed layout if it exists
• Recent photographs of each elevation of any building and of the habitats on site
• A description of the proposal in one paragraph, including whether buildings are being demolished, re-roofed or converted
• The planning stage, the authority, and the target submission date
• Any constraints you already know about: designations, a neighbour's pond, a known roost, a tree preservation order
• Access arrangements, including whether a key is available and whether livestock or dogs are present
• Whether biodiversity net gain applies, and whether any exemption is being claimed
• The extent of land you control, which is not always the same as the application boundary

That last point is worth labouring. Habitat enhancement often has to go somewhere, and if your only land is inside the red line, the options narrow.

Defining the survey area and the red line

The red line is a planning boundary. The survey area is an ecological one, and the two are rarely the same.

Protected species work extends beyond the site. Great crested newt assessments consider ponds within 250 metres and sometimes 500 metres. Bat activity surveys consider commuting routes and dark corridors beyond the boundary. Badger surveys look for setts in adjoining land. An ecologist needs to know what they can walk on and what they must assess from the boundary or from aerial imagery.

For biodiversity net gain the position is different again. The statutory metric needs a habitat baseline covering the whole area affected by the development, mapped and condition-assessed. Say in the brief whether off-site land is available, because a scheme that cannot achieve ten per cent on site needs either off-site units or statutory credits, and that is a different piece of work.

Mark two boundaries on your drawing: the application boundary, and the land to which the surveyor has access. It removes an entire category of confusion.

Stating the planning stage and the deadline

Put the date in the brief, in bold if you must, and say what the date is for.

An ecologist can work to a submission deadline, a committee date or a contract completion date, but the advice differs. If the deadline cannot be met, you want to know in the quotation, not after appointment. And if the honest answer is that a conclusive survey needs next season, a good consultant will say so and may offer an interim scoping note that lets the design proceed.

Say also whether you have had any pre-application discussion, and attach the authority's response if you have. Where a council ecologist has already named the surveys they expect, that saves the consultant scoping from scratch and it narrows the argument later.

Survey seasons and what they mean for programme

Include in the brief a line asking the consultant to state, for each recommended survey, the window in which it must be done and the earliest date they could complete it.

That single question converts a price list into a programme. It also exposes the difference between a quotation assuming one bat visit and one assuming three, which is otherwise invisible.

A Preliminary Ecological Appraisal can be done in any month and should always come first, because it is the document that determines what else is needed.

Deliverables to specify in the brief

Be specific here, because this is where quotations diverge without looking as though they do.

1. A preliminary ecological appraisal report prepared to the relevant professional institute's standards, with a clear recommendations section
2. Where needed, protected species survey reports with the methodology and the survey dates stated
3. The statutory biodiversity metric calculation as a working spreadsheet file, not only as a printed extract
4. A biodiversity gain plan in the form the authority requires
5. Habitat plans as drawings you can issue, in both editable and PDF form
6. A mitigation and enhancement schedule written so that it can be turned into a condition
7. Any licence application, stated as included or excluded
8. A statement confirming who may rely on the report

Point three matters more than it looks. Authorities increasingly ask for the metric file itself so they can check the condition assessments, and a consultant who will only supply a summary creates a problem at validation. A Biodiversity Net Gain Assessment and gain plan must in any case be prepared by someone competent to complete the statutory metric, which the Environment Act 2021 regime expects, so ask who that person is and what their experience of the metric is.

Point six is the one that saves money later. A mitigation schedule written as vague aspiration produces a condition written by the authority instead, and that condition will be worse.

Comparing quotations that look different

Line them up against four questions.

What suitability or risk category has each consultant assumed, and why? How many survey visits, with how many surveyors each, in which months? What is excluded, specifically, with licensing and mitigation design called out? And what is the hourly or daily rate for additional work, so you can price a variation?

A quotation that is substantially lower than the others is usually assuming fewer visits, which may be right or may be optimistic. Ask the low bidder what would change their assumption. If the answer is clear and evidenced, take it. If the answer is that the category can be reviewed on site, read that as a variation waiting to happen.

Price is not the only axis. An ecologist whose reports the local authority already accepts, and who holds the relevant survey licences personally, is worth more than a discount.

What to agree about further survey work

Settle three things in writing before appointment.

The trigger. What specific finding causes additional survey work to be needed, and who decides. "If the ecologist considers it necessary" is too loose for a programme.

The mechanism. How additional work is instructed and priced, with a rate schedule attached.

The ownership. Who holds any survey or mitigation licence, whether that person will be on site during the works, and what happens if they leave the firm mid-project.

Where a reviewer is appointed separately to check the ecologist's work, the same clarity applies, and the professional directory route carries the same obligations as any other instruction. The analogous competence question for drainage work is covered in the note on drainage engineer competence.

An illustrative brief

"Site: 0.4ha former builder's yard with a single-storey brick building and a mature hedge to the north, at the address and grid reference attached. Proposal: demolition of the building and erection of four dwellings, layout attached. Application boundary marked red; land under our control marked blue, extending to the paddock north of the hedge. Target submission: 30 April. Authority: as noted, no pre-application advice taken. Known constraints: hedge may be a species-rich boundary, no designations within 1km to our knowledge. Required: preliminary ecological appraisal, any protected species surveys you recommend with windows and earliest completion dates stated, statutory metric as a working file, gain plan, habitat drawings in editable form, and a mitigation schedule suitable for conditioning. Please state exclusions and your rate for additional work."

Nine lines, and it will get you comparable quotations. This example is illustrative.

PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval. For specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required.

This is general guidance, not legal advice; check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.