Professionals and Qualifications – Page 7
Who is competent to prepare or sign off each report, and how to brief and check them.
Professionals and Qualifications articles – page 7
372 articlesExpert evidence at a planning inquiry: duties and scope
An expert witness gives honest opinion within their discipline, even where it harms the case. Here is how that shapes the proof, the common ground and cross-examination.
Conflicts of interest for a technical report author
Applicants' consultants are not neutral, and nobody expects them to be. What destroys the weight given to a report is an interest the reader finds out about later.
Who signs off a sustainable drainage verification report
Surface water conditions require a verification report before occupation. Who signs it, what evidence it carries, and why almost all of that evidence has to be captured while the trenches are open.
Travel plan coordinators and who prepares the plan
A travel plan creates continuing obligations for the occupier. The coordinator is a named role with survey and reporting duties, usually tied to first occupation.
Who should write a basement impact assessment
No single engineer is competent across groundwater, surface water, ground movement and structural damage. Here is the team a basement assessment needs, and the order.
Great crested newt eDNA: choosing an accredited laboratory
Great crested newt eDNA results are only as good as the laboratory and the chain of custody. Here is what reviewers check, and what a negative result does not prove.
Hedgerow assessments under the Hedgerows Regulations 1997
Removing a farm hedge needs a removal notice and a 42 day wait. Whether the hedgerow is important depends on criteria that need both ecological and historical competence.
Conservation accreditation for architects and surveyors
No law requires a conservation accredited architect on a listed building, but grant funders often do, and conservation officers read an accredited application differently.
Who prepares and supervises an arboricultural method statement
The person who writes an arboricultural method statement and the person who supervises the works need different strengths. Here is what each role requires and what the council checks at discharge.
Registered building inspector classes and what each covers
The Building Safety Act put building control competence on a statutory footing. Class alone does not tell you what an inspector may work on, because categories limit it further.
Wind microclimate assessors and comfort criteria competence
With no statutory register for wind microclimate work, the modelling approach and the comfort criteria set are what make an assessment defensible. What to ask before appointing.
Peer review against a second opinion on a technical report
Access to the underlying model and measurement files usually decides whether a peer review or a fresh second opinion is the right commission on a contested report.
Checking whether the report author visited the site
A report built on a site inspection reads differently from one built on a database. Dates, survey conditions, photographs and the limitations section usually give the answer before you have to ask.
What a reviewer takes on when signing off a draft
A reviewer who signs a drafted report is taking on a professional position on its content. Scope, data, site inspection and the wording of the declaration decide how far that goes.
Who completes the biodiversity gain plan calculation
No one signs the biodiversity metric. The regime expects a competent person, which resolves into habitat classification and condition assessment skill applied on site, in season.
Transport planner competence and trip rate data licensing
Trip generation work depends on a licensed database held by the organisation, not the individual. Check the licence, then the modelling, then the letters after the name.
Appointing an ecological clerk of works on site
Ecological supervision fails when nobody defines it. Settle the trigger list, the competence requirement, the authority to stop work and the reporting outputs in the appointment itself.
Who is competent to write a GLVIA3 landscape assessment
No statute says who may write a landscape and visual impact assessment. Chartered membership, a transparent method and a viewpoint schedule agreed with the authority are what make the evidence stand up.
Registering under a bat mitigation class licence
Class licensing speeds up low impact bat work, but only for registered consultants, only for listed species and roost types, and only with the record keeping that goes with it.
Accredited archaeologist grades and what each permits
Curators reject archaeological reports on competence grounds more often than on content. Knowing which accreditation grade covers which document saves a determination period.
Registered access auditors and what the register means
Registration on the national access register signals assessed competence rather than a statutory licence. Here is what an access audit should cover at planning stage and when to appoint one.
Who can carry out a river condition assessment
The watercourse module of the statutory biodiversity metric requires a river condition assessment by an accredited surveyor. General ecological competence does not cover it, and the gap surfaces at gain plan stage.
Changing consultant during a live planning application
The application survives a change of consultant. Your licence to use the drawings may not. How to handle copyright, fees, file transfer and technical continuity.
Statements of common ground and expert conferencing
A statement of common ground should settle facts, data and method, then record disagreement precisely. How topic statements and expert conferencing work at a planning inquiry.
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