26th October 2011, 12:43 PM
I've heard a rumor that one large Scottish council is going to stop providing a list of archaeological contractors to potential developers, because of problems with work they've had done by non-RAOs. Instead, if someone asks how they can find an archaeologist to undertake commercial work, they'll be directed to the RAO list and the phone book. I'm not sure what would happen if the developer found a non-RAO contractor through the phone book and wanted to use them, i.e. whether the Council would say that they couldn't, or whether they'd still accept them if the person had the qualifications and experience to do the work, but I think the decision was based on the fact that they're not obliged to provide a list of contractors, and doing so essentially acts as free advertising for organisations that the HER team feel are not capable of doing the job to a suitable standard (not that being an RAO would necessarily be any guarantee of quality work!)
You know Marcus. He once got lost in his own museum