Following recent negotiations, an agreement has been reached between Northumberland Badger Group and ERIC NE for the delivery of Northumberland Badger Group data request service by ERIC NE. This will improve access to Biological records for Badgers in Northumberland, Newcastle and North Tyneside, meaning all records can be accessed through a single point of contact and a single request, while continuing to support the conservation work undertaken by Northumberland Badger Group. Both parties feel that this agreement will be of benefit to consultants in that it will simplify sourcing Badger (Meles meles) data and will ultimately assist in protecting the conservation status of Badgers.

Northumberland Badger Group and ERIC NE would like to advise all consultants and others who have previously accessed the Groups Database that from 1st July all requests for badger data can be submitted to ERIC NE via the online data request form. From that date, Northumberland Badger Group data will be included in ERIC NE standard searches.  There will be no additional costs to the current ERIC NE fees for data searches which include Northumberland Badger Group data.

Northumberland Badger Group will continue to maintain its Database and will be updating ERIC NE on a regular basis, so anyone with data, who has previously sent us data is asked to continue to do so. and this still applies to consultants as well as individuals.  We welcome your assistance in this and look forward to continuing to work with you. The group can be contacted with information by using enquires@northumberlandbadgergroup.org.uk or the link on our website https://northumberlandbadgergroup.org.uk/.

We will continue to work with the Police and other emergency services to supply data when appropriately requested in the event of an investigation. In future we will be able to provide data held on the ERIC Database as well as our own.

We feel this joint working will benefit the future conservation status of Badgers in Northumberland and North Tyneside by bring together the data from both sources into one easily accessed service point.  May we extend thanks to all our users past and present for your assistance and using the data we both provided.