Coal Mining Reports

The Coal Authority's Mining Reports Service is a highly computerised service which utilises our award winning Mining Reports & Surface Damage System (MRSDS) and draws on a unique database of coal mining information.

To the year ending 31^st March 2002, the Authority produced some 460,000 reports, a record number, 18% more than in the previous year and some 50% more than in 1998 when MRSDS was launched.

However, MRSDS was only designed to produce 500,000 reports and, with demand for reports still increasing, the system is now working to capacity. This is resulting in performance problems and occasional system breakdown and a backlog of enquiries waiting to be processed is beginning to build up. Consequently we are currently experiencing difficulties in meeting our published targets of returning 85% of reports within 2 working days, 95% within 5 working days.

To tackle this problem, work is ongoing to develop and implement the system changes necessary to increase service capacity to 750,000 reports and we have also brought forward the development timetable for the next generation MRSDS system. These works will continue over the next few months. In the shorter term, additional staff have been recruited and an evening shift has been introduced. With these measures in place we expect to deliver the majority of our reports, over the summer, within 5 working days.

The purpose of this letter is to provide forewarning of the potential for slight delays over the next few months and to advise you to order your coal mining searches as early as possible in the conveyancing process. This will ensure timely return of mining reports and avoid potential difficulties in meeting your own scheduled completion times. Whilst these issues are having less impact on users of our on-line and the NLIS services, this request to carry out searches as early as possible is being asked of these customers too.

Our commitment to outstanding customer service remains at the heart of everything we do. Rest assured we will be doing everything in our powers to overcome these current difficulties and continue with our endeavour to provide you with the best possible mining reports service.

Joe Dearden

Functional Support Manager