BIS Enquiry Service

A standard search of data held by BIS within a user-defined geographical area. Depending on specification BIS can include a report on habitats, designated sites, and species categorised to follow a range of international, national and locally recognised statuses, as below.

Species

Four categories of species have been defined to support this service and are standardised with LRC Wales:-

• Priority - Species with European and UK Legal Protection, Section 42 [NERC] Species & UK BAP Priority Species)
• Species of Conservation Concern - Global Red List, British Red Data Book, Nationally Rare & Scarce, Welsh Red and Amber Birds & Welsh Vascular Plant Red Data List where these are not identified in Priority category
• Local - LBAP Species not identified as Priority or SOCC. Locally Important species as specified by local experts
• Other – all other species records that do not fit above criteria

BIS may also report on:-

• Mobile species - high priority species (e.g. mammals, amphibians, certain invertebrates) records which lie outside the specified search area, but which should be taken into account in ecological assessment due to the possibility of their using land within the search area as part of the territory, or for part of their life cycle. [BIS will report on mobile species where the buffer of the species intersects the buffer of the application site when the buffer around the application site is less than 2km.]

Habitats

BIS reports on the occurrence of any known semi-natural habitats in the relevant search areas that could contain Section 42 Priority habitats, using CCW Phase 1 and Phase II habitat survey data. In addition users are alerted to the presence of ancient woodland using the CCW Ancient Woodland Inventory.

Sites

BIS reports on statutory and local sites within the relevant search areas. These include, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, Special Areas for Conservation, Special Protection Areas, National Nature Reserves, Wildlife Sites and Regionally Important Geological Sites

GIS Plot

As well as a report on above BIS will provide a GIS plot displaying points (e.g. for species occurrence), or polygons (e.g habitat and sites). This plot can be provided as a pdf interactive map, allowing the user to switch GIS layers on and off, plus querying the features attributes.

Aerial photos of the search area, including a protected sites overlay, is available as an optional extra.

See sample interactive  species and habitat pdf maps plus tutorial on using these interactive maps.