Yesterday there was a meeting of PAI Finds Officers and their managers which
included 2 or 3 SMR Officers. The question of confidentiality was discussed
all afternoon and although several useful points were made no resolution of
the fundamental problem was discussed (as usual).
This fundamental problem can be summed up: the PAI scheme is prepared to
accept confidential information whilst at the same time passing this on to a
public record.
Dave Hopkins (Hants) made some extremely good points on the problems
inherent with confidentiality clauses ( eg when exactly does the data become
subject to planning interest - eg legal searches) but his main point was
that PAI can't pass this problem on to SMRs.
One final point on Emma's idea for a separate GIS layer or other ideas about
keeping the PAI data separately. The Heritage Lottery Fund conditions of
grant state that the PAI data MUST be transferred and incorporated into a
SMR and not kept separate.
If this situation is not resolved soon, someone may have to give their grant
back... (or are they lying to HLF?)
Chris Webster
Somerset Sites and Monuments Record
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