Following the successful Natural England funded pilot of the LERC accreditation system in 2010, the Association of Local Environmental Record Centres (ALERC) is currently agreeing the final LERC accreditation criteria, with a view to officially launching the accreditation process in June. LERCs will be invited to apply to take part in the process and the first assessments will take place in late 2012.
Accreditation came about when Natural England, working in close association with ALERC and Bill Butcher, commissioned the development of an Accreditation System. Its aims are to identify a minimum level of standards, to build confidence in LERCs as bodies which hold biodiversity information in trust for society, and manage public resources well. Accreditation covers topics such as LERC organisation, data custodianship and products and services. It will enable successfully accredited LERCs to show that they are able to conform to national standards.
The accreditation criteria were inspired largely by work previously done for the NBN Trust to identify the essential functions of an LERC which can be read here. For more information on the place of LERCs within the NBN, please visit the LERC pages on the NBN website. For more information on ALERC and for more details on the accreditation process and criteria, please visit the ALERC website.