LCC Ecological Expertise - Find a freedom of information request

1 How does the local authority access ecological expertise? Is it through:

 

a) in-house ecological staff within the local authority,

b) through a Service Level Agreement/shared resource with another local authority,

c) through a Service Level Agreement with another body e.g. Wildlife Trust,

d) through other external expertise e.g. consultants,

e) no access to ecological expertise?

 

If it is a mixture of the above, could you please specify what the arrangements are.

 

I am specifically looking for how the authority accesses staff/resources for implementing, delivering, monitoring and reporting on biodiversity net gain and other natural environment functions.

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.  
 
Lincolnshire County Council (LCC) have ecology / natural environment staff in the Sustainability Team. There are also ecology staff working in the Planning Team on BNG and NSIP planning application issues.

LCC also have a Service Level Agreement with the Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership to access data from their Environmental Records Centre.