One of the big physical risk areas facing civil engineering contractors when they’re performing excavation operations is “what’s in the ground”, especially those heavily involved in streetworks.
Accessing detailed and accurate plans of whether underground services exist has always been a challenge, both for those who are designing projects and those who are physically doing the work.
The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) is a government digital service which provides instant access to a map of underground pipes and cables for authorised users in Wales, England and Northern Ireland. It holds detailed information from underground asset owners for an estimated 3.25 million kilometres of pipes, across electricity, gas, water, pipeline operators and telecoms, covering 80% of the known underground assets.
The first version of NUAR was launched in April 2023 across Wales, North East England and London and went operational across Wales, England and Northern Ireland in November 2025 with Ordnance Survey named as the long-term operator equipped to continue to evolve and improve the functionality, guided by stakeholder requirements and aligned with government service standards.
So, not only is this an important tool for you to improve the safety of your workforce and your planning and risk management capabilities but, from June 2025, the Data (Use and Access) Act achieved Royal Assent which put NUAR on a statutory footing and updated the existing legislation which governs the sharing of underground asset information. This allows NUAR to serve as a comprehensive statutory register of asset information and contains measures to allow it to be operated sustainably into the future.
Given its importance to the sector, we wanted to give you the chance to hear from NUAR’s Account Managers, Ian David and Steve Kuczynski, about how you can access this system to improve the quality of data for your workforce and, ultimately, make their operations safer. At the webinar you’ll get a bit of background about NUAR, the importance of the register and the benefits of using it, how it works and how you can access it. Ian will also be joined by Ieuan Jones, Utilities Coordinator at Transport for Wales, who are using this system and are keen for their supply chains to also utilise the register.
This is a free webinar for CECA Wales members. If you would like to attend please contact Sue at susan@cecawales.co.uk