I am writing to make a request about the access your local authority has to ecological expertise in-house. “In-house ecological expertise” is defined as those who are employed by the council on a part-time or full-time basis and who have Chartered Ecological status (CEcol). In March 2018, it was revealed that only 1 in 4 councils had access to some form of ecological expertise within their own teams.

1. Would you please tell me how many chartered ecologists the council has employed over the last three years between May 2018 to May 2021? Would you please provide this figure in terms of FTE equivalence. For example, if you have employed only one chartered ecologist 2.5days a week over the past three years the FTE figure = 0.5

2. As a second part to this request would you please also tell me how many “other environmental experts” the council employs, who are either unchartered but hold a position as an environmentalist or hold chartered status in a related discipline e.g. someone who holds Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) status. Would you please also provide this figure in terms of FTE equivalence.

Wokingham Borough Council does not have any posts where it is essential for the the occupant to be of Chartered ecology status but has a substantial number of staff who have ecology and environmental qualifications. Precise numbers for each year are not available.