Choosing an archaeologist: registered organisations

The archaeologist you appoint does not set the scope of the work. The local planning authority's archaeological adviser does, usually a county archaeologist, through a written brief. Your contractor then writes a written scheme of investigation that responds to it, and the adviser approves that scheme before anything happens on site. Understanding that sequence is what stops a developer from paying for work nobody asked for, or from discovering mid-programme that the fieldwork will not discharge the condition.

Choose the contractor on the basis of who can deliver the brief, on programme, to a standard the adviser will sign off. Price is the fourth question, not the first.

Who sets the brief and who does the work

The adviser writes the brief because they hold the archaeological record for the area, usually in the form of the historic environment record, and because they will be the one advising the council whether the condition has been discharged.

The contractor's written scheme of investigation sets out the methods, the staffing, the recording system, the sampling strategy, the timetable and the arrangements for post-excavation work and archive deposition. Approval of that document is the point at which the scope becomes fixed.

Three practical consequences follow. Get the brief before you tender, so every tender prices the same work. Do not let a contractor start writing the scheme before the brief exists. And build in time for the adviser to approve it, because that approval sits on the critical path before any pre-commencement condition can be discharged.

Registered organisations and what registration covers

The Chartered Institute for Archaeologists operates a registration scheme for organisations. A registered organisation has been inspected against the institute's standards and code of conduct, must have appropriately accredited staff in responsible positions, and is subject to periodic review and to a complaints process.

Registration is about the organisation's systems: how it supervises fieldwork, how it manages records, how it handles health and safety and professional standards. It is not a guarantee about any particular site or any particular individual on it.

Most local authority advisers expect a registered organisation, and some briefs say so explicitly. Where a brief does not, the question to ask is what assurance the council's adviser will accept, because an unregistered contractor whose work the adviser does not trust becomes your problem rather than theirs.

Individual accreditation grades

Individuals hold accredited grades within the institute, running from practitioner level through associate to full member, each reflecting responsibility and experience rather than years served. Affiliate status indicates membership without accreditation.

What matters on a project is which accredited individual is responsible for the fieldwork and who signs the report. Ask for a named project officer and a named post-excavation manager, and ask how many other projects each is running concurrently.

Insurance, archives and the duties that outlast the dig

Professional indemnity cover matters because archaeological advice affects programme decisions worth far more than the fee. Ask for the limit and check it against the exposure if the work has to be redone.

Archive deposition is the duty that surprises people. Excavation generates finds and records that have to be deposited with an appropriate receiving body, and many museums have limited or closed their collecting because they have no space. Deposition charges are real, they are usually per box, and they fall due long after the fieldwork is finished.

Ask at tender stage which museum will take the archive and what the charge is. Where no museum will accept it, ask what the contractor proposes instead, because the answer affects both cost and the contractor's ability to complete their professional obligations.

Tendering against a written brief

A comparable tender needs a fixed scope. That means the brief, a site plan, the results of any earlier work, ground conditions, access constraints and the programme window all going out with the invitation.

Ask each tenderer for the same breakdown: mobilisation, fieldwork by staff grade and duration, plant and welfare, finds and environmental processing, specialist reporting, post-excavation assessment, archive preparation and deposition, and publication. Lump sums with no breakdown cannot be compared and cannot be managed when the scope changes.

State clearly what happens if substantial remains are found. Most contracts deal with this through a provisional sum or a rate schedule, and having that mechanism agreed in advance is worth more than a slightly lower headline price.

Checking capacity for your programme

Archaeological fieldwork is seasonal and labour constrained. A contractor who can start in March may not be able to start in November, and a national shortage of experienced field staff means the tender price is not the only thing being competed for.

Ask what else the team is committed to during your window, whether the named project officer will be on site or supervising remotely, and what happens if your programme slips by a month. A contractor who answers those questions precisely is telling you something about how they run projects.

An illustrative example: a site with a prehistoric field system identified at evaluation. The lowest tender assumed six weeks of excavation with a small team and a nominal post-excavation allowance. The remains proved more extensive than assumed, the team could not be scaled up because staff were committed elsewhere, and the works were suspended for five weeks. The next lowest tender had priced a larger team and a rate schedule for extension. Its total cost would have been lower, and the programme would have held.

Where the lowest tender costs more later

The failure modes are consistent. Under-resourced fieldwork extends the site occupation. A thin post-excavation allowance leaves the assessment unfunded, the report unfinished and the condition undischarged, sometimes years after the building is occupied. An archive that nobody prepared for sits in a store attracting charges.

None of those costs appear in the tender comparison. All of them appear in the project account.

Discharge of the archaeological condition usually requires the post-excavation assessment or the final report, not merely the completion of fieldwork. That timing is why the last stage of the work is the one to protect in the budget, and it is a good reason to hold a retention or to stage payments against deliverables rather than against site progress. Where the appointment is later transferred to the main contractor, the same protections need writing into the novation, as set out in novating a consultant appointment to the contractor.

The same specification discipline applies to other site surveys, including specifying a topographical survey for a planning application.

Professional review of a draft report by a suitably qualified specialist is strongly advised, and the professional directory is the route to a reviewer. This is general guidance, not legal advice. Check the position with your local planning authority or a qualified professional before relying on it.

PlanScope drafts the archaeological desk-based assessment structure and the surrounding application documents, and for specialist technical reports, qualified professional input may be required. PlanScope provides AI-assisted draft reports for planning applications. Reports should be reviewed before submission. We do not guarantee planning approval.