There has been a popular misconception, by USA hunters over the years, that the British system is some sort of "carte blanche". As if there is a lovey-dovey "hand-holding" between archaeologists there, and md'rs. Or that their system allows md'ing anywhere nilly-willy.
But I have always maintained that this is NOT what it is. And that those British guys can NOT waltz nilly-willy into historic sensitive monuments. Instead, 99% of their hunting is on private farmers lands with permission. NOT public land. Well gee, we have that here in the USA already. And : No government intrusion AT ALL ! It's completely between you and farmer Bob how to split it.
The only reason the UK crown has their "nose in the md'rs business", is that over there, unlike here, any wealth in the ground belongs to the crown. So if you find oil on your land, you're not rich like the Beverly hillbillies. Versus over here, if you find a cache on farmer Bob's land, it's TOTALLY BETWEEN YOU AND FARMER BOB how to handle it. And no one is forced to sell to the govt. (at a price the govt. decides whether or not you can keep). We have a wonderful system here to find the "market rate" : It's called (drumroll): Ebay !!
Yet for some reason md'rs wax romantic about the UK system.
And this latest link is something I've been harping on forever, that : We do NOT want "express allowances" (permits, or govt. oversight, or govt. blessings and permission and splits, blah blah). Instead it is much better that it is merely silent on the subject. Presto : Not disallowed
And that the moment you are in some sort of relationship (express allowance) with the govt. then it's only going to be a matter of time before some purist archies get their panties in a wad. And start thinking "gee, do we really want all these yahoos out there digging up the past ?".
Hence the LESS that the government thinks about us, the better. And this latest proposed revisions in the UK are proof of this now. Their system merely meant it was perpetually always on-their-radar as something to monitor, bless, etc....