I have recently become aware of this new initiative and wonder if our commercial experience may be of assistance.

  For 20 years, as a fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, I ran the UK's largest company of Chartered Land Surveyors, Glen Surveys Ltd. Glen Surveys was not only a leader in making maps and plans, but also a pioneer of the management technology, GIS (Geographical Information Systems). For 10 years Glen worked with Ordnance Survey, to create the national archive of digital maps that everyone can now enjoy.

  Three years ago I took early retirement from Glen Surveys, to develop GIS management tools for Cemetery and Crematoria Administration and Management. Our two products, BACAS and VISUALBACAS have become the market leaders in the burial and cremation industries. The former package organises the transactions and record keeping process of burials or cremations, whilst the latter, based on digital maps, provides the basis for better organising sites and keeping Risk Assessment Records of the conditions of monuments.

  In particular VISUALBACAS addresses most of the most serious problems facing the managers of Cemeteries and Crematoria, ie:

—  Who is responsible for what?

—  Lifespan of space available.

—  Space available on expiry of "Perpetuity Rights".

—  Safety, security and condition of monuments.

—  Is there space where there is no monument visible?

—  Optimisation of space etc, etc.

  I enclose herewith a copy of our VISUALBACAS brochure[22] which we trust will highlight some of the issues that the Sub-committee will be addressing. Should our knowledge be of interest we would be pleased to submit further information or to meet for an informal dialogue.

December 2000