The government has proposed the minimum information specification and timing of information uploads for the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). Interested parties have until 15 October to respond.
NUAR is an interactive digital map of underground pipes and cables that is designed to improve safe digging and end accidental strikes. This is the most significant announcement about NUAR since it moved into a public beta phase after receiving Royal Assent nearly two months ago. It is due to be fully operational (run by Ordnance Survey) by the end of this year.
The new consultation sets out the initial tranche of NUAR regulations, which update existing duties and introduce new requirements on those who own and maintain apparatus in the street (referred to in the consultation document as ‘undertakers’) to keep records of specified information about their apparatus.
The regulations will implement a new minimum information specification to ensure that a comprehensive baseline of the necessary information to inform street works is collected moving forwards. The regulations will establish requirements for undertakers to upload information about their apparatus to NUAR and ensure that this remains up to date whenever changes occur, for example during installation or maintenance.
To ensure this information is made available for the purposes of street works excavation, the regulations grant access to information held in NUAR for undertakers and authorised contractors working on their behalf in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. These regulations are necessary to ensure NUAR has comprehensive and up to date information to support those undertaking street works to carry out their work safely and efficiently.
Timeline revealed
The consultation proposes a 12-month period for initial uploads to NUAR to “allow sufficient time for undertakers to work with the NUAR onboarding team to ensure that their information is transformed and ingested into the NUAR platform, and that any challenges experienced can be worked through in good time”.
To allow time for Parliamentary passage of proposed secondary legislation, the archive upload date that starts this upload period is unlikely to begin before spring 2026 at the earliest, and therefore the requirements are unlikely to be enforced before spring 2027 at the earliest.
A minimum refresh frequency of 28 days is proposed for apparatus that risks injury or loss of life through strikes. For apparatus which if struck would have the highest impact, a more frequent refresh may be appropriate. For apparatus which does not risk injury or loss of life through strikes, a quarterly refresh is proposed as a minimum.
The consultation reveals a further key development: while those using NUAR to ensure safe excavations will use the platform for free, asset owners uploading their data to NUAR will ultimately have to pay fees to cover the operational costs of the platform. The consultation document states: “Once NUAR is fully operational, undertakers will be able to share their data for the purposes of safe digging through the NUAR service, rather than having to respond to each data request individually. As this will lead to efficiency benefits for undertakers and will maintain long-standing industry practice of data being free at the point of use, the running costs of NUAR will be shared across the undertakers.”
Accuracy is critical
Technology minister Baroness Jones said: “The National Underground Asset Register is a game-changer for the entire economy, because all of us depend in one way or another on infrastructure that’s underground. We waste time and money dealing with the disruption caused when pipes and cables are damaged, and the Register will help people work smarter, so more of those accidents can be avoided.
“For this to all work, it is critical that the information in NUAR is kept accurate and up to date. We want to work with industry and asset owners to ensure that happens – and listening to them, through this consultation, is an important step on the road forwards.”
NUAR won the Digital Innovation in Productivity category at the Digital Construction Awards 2024.
