Consultation outcome

The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) Consultation

Updated 24 October 2022

Applies to England, Northern Ireland and Wales

About this consultation

We encourage representatives from the following stakeholder groups to respond to this consultation:

• Utility companies
• Local authorities
• Trade associations
• Professional bodies; and
• Other organisations operating in any of the following sub-sectors:

Telecommunications
Gas
District heating
Electricity
Clean water
Waste water
Street lighting and other highway asset maintenance service providers
Transport authorities and agencies
Construction companies
Environmental Agencies
Health and Safety
Asset Management

• Devolved administrations and authorities
• Regulators
• National resilience planners
• Other interested organisations, academics or members of the public.

Duration: Thursday 7 April 2022 to Thursday 2 June 2022.

Enquiries (including requests for the paper in an alternative format) to:

NUAR Delivery Unit
The Geospatial Commission
10 South Colonnade
Canary Wharf
E14 4PU

Email: nuar-futuremodel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

How to respond:
Please complete your response using the online form
or email:nuar-futuremodel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
A summary of questions can be found towards the end of this document

Additional stakeholder engagement:
There will be a series of briefings and Q&A sessions accompanying this consultation. Invites will be sent out whilst the consultation is live.

Response:
The government’s response to this consultation will be published on GOV.UK

Foreword

In a rapidly advancing digital environment, location data is a strategic asset that brings immense value to our economy, society and environment. Each year, 4 million holes are dug (around 1 every 7 seconds) to install, fix and maintain the pipes and wires buried underground - assets that are critical in keeping the water running, gas and electricity flowing and our telecommunications lines connected. Approximately 1 in every 65 holes dug results in an accidental asset strike (c. 60,000 a year), causing around £2.4 billion worth of economic cost, putting workers’ lives at risk and disrupting our day-to-day lives. The National Underground Asset Register (NUAR) will help improve efficiencies in construction and development, reduce disruption (from extended road closures & congestion), improve workers’ safety, and is envisaged to deliver £347m economic value per year.

Every construction and infrastructure project has to source information on underground assets (i.e. cables, pipes, sewers and ducts) when preparing ground investigation and excavation work. A significant number of organisations have to be contacted for information on their assets, and this is provided in varied formats, scales, quality, and on different timelines. With all these assets and different companies involved, working beneath the ground is both complex and time consuming.

In 2019, the Geospatial Commission launched its first set of activities with this industry through local, twelve month pilots. Focused in the North East of England and London, the pilots aimed to increase our understanding of how a national register could work in practice, as well as work with stakeholders to test what the mapping platform could look like. These pilots demonstrated the real world positive impacts NUAR would have for industry and society more widely, making ground works cheaper, safer and quicker.

The Geospatial Commission has a mandate to deliver changes to unlock the power of location data. Learning from the pilots, it is clear that improvements in sharing and accessing underground asset data have huge potential in revolutionising how infrastructure projects are planned and delivered, helping to improve efficiencies in construction and development, reduce disruption and improving workers’ safety. The improvements delivered are also likely to have value for new types of infrastructure projects including the rollout of fibre broadband and electric vehicle charge points, as well as potentially for other use cases such as coordination of streetworks, emergency response, flood risk planning, resilience planning and alternative energy production and distribution.

NUAR not only provides benefits to asset owners and those that dig up the streets, but also provides opportunities to the wider market. Delivering this project is a key priority for the Government and I want to thank everyone involved in supporting the Geospatial Commission’s work to date to deliver NUAR. For all of those responding to this consultation, your responses will help guide the next steps taken in this important project.

Dr Steve Unger,
Commissioner
The Geospatial Commission

Executive Summary

The Geospatial Commission is building a digital service for sharing data on the location of underground pipes and cables that will revolutionise construction and development in the UK - the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR). NUAR will provide a consistent, interactive, digital map of buried asset data, accessible when, where and how it is needed by those planning and executing excavations.

A key priority is to ensure NUAR is delivered in a manner that maximises value to users, with a sustainable funding model. To achieve this, full participation by owners of underground assets (‘asset owners’) is preferable, to ensure planners and excavators have access to as complete data as possible.

For asset owners, this service will improve current data exchange processes leading to significant efficiencies and reducing the likelihood of asset strikes. Based on the pilots and our work to date, we expect the majority of asset owners will be keen to participate voluntarily. We are considering all options, including legislation, to ensure maximum participation in the platform and set the future home of NUAR.

This consultation is split into three sections and will ask questions throughout. The first section outlines the current practice. The following section details our assessment in regards to potential legislation and the scope of such legislation. The final section outlines our current thinking to date on the potential funding mechanism to support the ongoing service.

We are seeking the views of utility companies, local authorities, regulators, trade associations, professional bodies, other organisations operating in the infrastructure sector, academia and the wider public to help shape the future of NUAR.

Background

About the Geospatial Commission

The Geospatial Commission was established in 2018 by the government as an independent, expert committee responsible for setting the UK’s geospatial strategy. Our aim is to unlock the significant economic, social and environmental opportunities offered by location data and boost the UK’s global geospatial expertise. The Geospatial Commission has a mandate and budget to drive and deliver changes by working in partnership with others. This means we:

• Provide strategic oversight of the geospatial ecosystem in the UK, setting geospatial strategy, policy and standards.
• Hold the budget for the public sector’s largest investment in geospatial data.
• Make targeted investments in data projects that accelerate innovation and adoption of geospatial data applications.

The problem

A significant proportion of our utility, building, and transport infrastructure is buried underground, including c. 4 million kilometres of buried pipes, cables, telecoms, and sewers ^{[footnote 1]}. An estimated 4 million holes are dug every year to access buried utility networks for repairs, upgrades, and installations^{[footnote 2]}. This busy and often unseen environment suffers an estimated 60,000 utility strikes per year, leading to injury, project delays, and disruption to traffic and local economies. Accidental strikes on underground assets are estimated to cost £2.4bn a year in direct and indirect costs. Whilst data on underground assets is freely available for certain groups, obtaining it requires contacting multiple sources, with the data provided in different formats, scales and to varying timeframes.

About NUAR

NUAR is a government-led programme aimed at more efficient information exchange by creating a single, comprehensive data-sharing platform on the location and condition of underground assets. It will be a secure data-sharing service that will provide an interactive, standardised digital view of the underground assets in a given location. The fundamental purpose of NUAR is to streamline the data-sharing process, reduce the risk of potentially lethal utility asset strikes and promote more efficient management and maintenance of underground assets.

The expected benefits of NUAR consists of three components:

1. Savings from reduced utility strikes;

2. Reduced costs and improved efficiency of data sharing; and

3. On-site and back office efficiency improvements for projects.

These benefits are estimated to be c. £347m per annum in real terms.

Activity currently underway

As NUAR is a live three-year programme, we have already undertaken some key steps to help unlock its full potential. In September 2021 we appointed a supplier, and work commenced on the build phase of the service. This is focused on the development of the digital service and is being built in partnership with industry over the next three years. Starting in North East England, Wales and London, it will complete with Northern Ireland and the remainder of England by Autumn 2024^{[footnote 3]}. To support this, data sharing agreements have started to be signed between asset owners and the supplier which will allow us to begin transforming the data and load it onto the platform.

We have also now developed a new enduring legal framework for data publication, outlining what data on NUAR can be accessed for. This is a key step in ensuring NUAR can be rolled out nationally.

Section 1 - The case for NUAR

1.1 Current practice

Current legislation, principally the New Roads and Street Works Act (1991), sets out the requirements in regards to data sharing relating to underground assets. Asset owners must make their data available to certain companies or agencies undertaking work around the highway network (known as statutory undertakers) free of charge. Some asset owners may also provide underground asset data to other organisations for non-statutory purposes, such as for surveying and conveyancing requests, though there are no legal obligations to share such data. This service may be provided at a cost to the requestor.

There is currently no fully digital platform in the UK that allows complete access to all data related to underground assets in one place. Rather, each asset owner holds the information relating to their assets and provides access to this when required in order to support safe working.

This process is time consuming for both asset owners, who are supplying the data, and for infrastructure project planners, who need access to the data. For asset owners to comply with existing legislation, they make their data available through multiple channels to respond to multiple requests. For project planners, they must contact all relevant asset owners to confirm underground apparatus in a given area, wait for this information and then bring it together.

There are a limited number of existing search providers that offer a useful service, by managing queries regarding underground assets in partnership or on behalf of asset owners. These platforms are incomplete and do not provide access to the data in a standardised, immediate and digitally interactive format.

On site, the situation can be unsafe as lack of access to comprehensive and standardised information may cause workers to dig through live cables and pipes with risk of serious injury or death. Furthermore, finding unknown buried infrastructure whilst digging or accidentally striking through a pipe or cable can cause unnecessary project delays and adversely impact local residents and businesses.

With an estimated 60,000 asset strikes per year, costing an estimated £2.4bn, as well as additional costs for data sharing and project planning, it becomes clear significant improvements could be made to the current process.

Q1: Approximately how much does it cost your organisation to provide data on the location of underground assets each month

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including time requirements, number and type of staff involved, and any other impacts.

Q2: Approximately how many organisations do you contact in order to get access to a complete dataset of underground infrastructure on average per project?

Please provide any further detail to your answer including the number and type of staff involved.

Q3: Approximately how long (in hours or days) on average does it take to receive all the data on the location of underground infrastructure you require from asset owners following the initial request?

Please provide any further detail to your answer.

Q4: Once received, approximately how long (in hours or days) does it take you to process the data from the various sources into a useful standardised format or information pack for use on a job?

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including the method you use, and the number and type of staff involved.

Section 2 - Assessing the need for legislation

2.1 Potential for legislation

We are considering how best to ensure that the NUAR platform can most effectively provide organisations and workers with access to all the data they need, when they need it, to carry out their duties effectively and safely. During the current phase of the project, data distribution agreements are being sought with asset owners, allowing for the publication of their underground asset data on the NUAR platform.

As part of considering options, we are also exploring whether powers in legislation would help guarantee the full participation of asset owners, given that currently engagement with the platform is non compulsory. 100% participation would eliminate the risk of individual asset owners using NUAR, but not sharing their own data in return which was identified as a key concern of asset owners during the pilots. We might also require provisions through legislation to establish the long-term home for NUAR.

Q5: Do you believe 100% participation is achievable without legislation?

Yes/No

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including how you think full participation could be achieved through other means.

2.2 Scope of legislation

It’s important that we also consider the powers and duties that would need to form part of any legislation implementing NUAR, so that, following consideration of the responses to this consultation, we can make informed proposals that would give the best effect to NUAR.

Lessons learnt from the pilots have shown that consistent data types and formats ensure the service will be of most use. As part of the current build phase, a data model has been developed, in collaboration with industry and standards bodies, which will ensure data viewed on NUAR is in a standardised and consistent format. To support this, a data transformation service will be provided, which ensures data held by asset owners can be ingested onto the platform. This service is provided free of charge in the current phase to minimise the cost of changes from legacy systems.

A standard model is of great benefit to end users, who will be able to quickly understand the underground assets in the area they are interested in. It will also support improved data quality at source, by reporting on compliance and conformance against the data model within the NUAR service. A feedback feature will also be provided to ensure that where inaccuracies do come to light, asset owners are informed and can take action appropriately.

Over time, our intention is to maintain a data model to ensure data being ingested onto the NUAR platform remains consistent and compliant.

Q6: To what extent do you agree that the government should require data ingested into the platform to be consistent with the data model?

Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

Please provide any further detail to your answer.

NUAR is a service which is designed to benefit, rather than compete with, the market. There are opportunities for not just those who directly benefit from NUAR, but also for those who can add value on top of it. There is also clear potential for the same data to be used to unlock barriers to other high priority infrastructure projects such as electric vehicle charge points and fibre broadband rollout, as well as other use cases such as coordination of streetworks, emergency response, flood risk planning, resilience planning and alternative energy production and distribution. Once the NUAR platform is functioning effectively, we could expand the use cases for the data held on NUAR in the future, with appropriate prior consultation, and thus extend the end users of NUAR, for such purposes. In order to do so, we would need to build the necessary functionality into the platform at the outset.

Q7. Do you agree that it could be beneficial to expand the prescribed use cases for NUAR in the future?

Yes/No

Please provide any further detail on your response including what these could be, as well as how asset owners should be informed of an expansion of use cases.

There are numerous considerations for where the final home of NUAR should be and we remain open as to what the most appropriate option would be. This may be set out in legislation, allowing the establishment of a new body should it be required, or inclusion with an existing organisation’s expanded remit and responsibilities.

Q8. Do you have any views about how NUAR should be run once it is fully operational including the status and remit of the responsible body?

Please provide any further detail on your response.

Section 3 - Accessing NUAR

3.1 A sustainable operating model

Once established, to ensure the NUAR service remains of highest value and continues to provide a worthwhile service, a sustainable funding mechanism will be required. We are currently exploring a number of options to ensure the core provision of the NUAR service is funded in a sustainable manner. Our thinking to date takes into account:

• The current costs of meeting existing statutory duties for provision of underground asset data;
• Who are the beneficiaries of NUAR;
• How we ensure NUAR is adopted as widely as possible;
• Different fee models and their respective merits;

Current statute requires that asset owners must provide their data free of charge, ‘for inspection’ to statutory undertakers. This is done at cost to the asset owners who must respond to these requests for information. NUAR will provide a means for asset owners to efficiently meet their obligations without needing to respond to multiple requests.

For statutory undertakers, NUAR would be a ‘one-stop shop’ for information regarding underground assets meaning they would no longer need to contact multiple services and organisations to source the data. Additionally, the information on NUAR regarding the different types of underground assets would be in line with the data model meaning information provided would be of a consistent format.

The above would also be the case for access to NUAR for non-statutory purposes. Some asset owners do share their data with other third parties for a number of reasons, sometimes at cost to the requestor. Should the data on NUAR also be available for such purposes, a fee could also be levied.

Our intention would be to charge a fee to support the future running of NUAR given the anticipated benefits, and there are multiple options as to where this fee could be charged.

Q9. To what extent do you agree that NUAR should charge;

a. Asset owners Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

b. Statutory undertakers Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

c. Users for non-statutory purposes Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

Please provide any further detail on your response.

Summary of Questions

Q1: Approximately how much does it cost your organisation to provide data on the location of underground assets each month

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including time requirements, number and type of staff involved, and any other impacts.

Q2: Approximately how many organisations do you contact in order to get access to a complete dataset of underground infrastructure on average per project?

Please provide any further detail to your answer including the number and type of staff involved.

Q3: Approximately how long (in hours or days) on average does it take to receive all the data on the location of underground infrastructure you require from asset owners following the initial request?

Please provide any further detail to your answer.

Q4: Once received, approximately how long (in hours or days) does it take you to process the data from the various sources into a useful standardised format or information pack for use on a job?

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including the method you use, and the number and type of staff involved.

Q5: Do you believe 100% participation is achievable without legislation?

Yes/No

Please provide any further detail to your answer, including how you think full participation could be achieved through other means.

Q6: To what extent do you agree that the government should require data ingested into the platform to be consistent with the data model?

Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

Please provide any further detail to your answer.

Q7. Do you agree that it could be beneficial to expand the prescribed use cases for NUAR in the future?

Yes/No

Please provide any further detail on your response including what these could be, as well as how asset owners should be informed of an expansion of use cases.

Q8. Do you have any views about how NUAR should be run once it is fully operational including the status and remit of the responsible body?

Please provide any further detail on your response.

Q9. To what extent do you agree that NUAR should charge;

a. Asset owners Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

b. Statutory undertakers Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

c. Users for non-statutory purposes Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree

Please provide any further detail on your response.

Contact Details/How to respond

For information about how we treat your personal data when you respond to our consultation, please see the Privacy Notice

Please complete your response online by Thursday 2nd June 2022.

Complaints or comments

If you have any complaints or comments about the consultation process you should contact Cabinet Office at nuar-futuremodel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Extra copies

Further paper copies of this consultation can be obtained from this address and it is also available on-line at gov.uk

Alternative format versions of this publication can be requested from nuar-futuremodel@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Confidentiality

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. We will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the Cabinet Office.

Privacy Notice for Cabinet Office consultations

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data, and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

YOUR DATA

Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is to obtain the opinions of members of the public, parliamentarians and representatives of organisations and companies about departmental policies, proposals, or generally to obtain public opinion data on an issue of public interest.

The data

We will process the following personal data: name, email address, job title (where given), and employer (where given), as well as opinions. We will also process additional biographical information about respondents or third parties where it is volunteered.

Legal basis of processing

The legal basis for processing your personal data is that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller. In this case that is consulting on departmental policies or proposals, or obtaining opinion data, in order to develop good effective policies.

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.

The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data, or data about criminal convictions (where you volunteer it), is that it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department. The function is consulting on departmental policies or proposals, or obtaining opinion data, in order to develop good effective policies.

Recipients

Where individuals submit responses, we may publish their responses, but we will not publicly identify them. We will endeavour to remove any information that may lead to individuals being identified.

Responses submitted by organisations or representatives of organisations may be published in full.

Where information about responses is not published, it may be shared with officials within other public bodies in order to help develop policy.

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors, SmartSurvey, who provide email, and document management and storage services.

We may share your personal data where required to by law, for example in relation to a request made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Retention

Published information will generally be retained indefinitely on the basis that the information is of historic value. This would include, for example, personal data about representatives of organisations.

Responses from individuals will be retained in identifiable form for one calendar year after the consultation has concluded.

Where personal data have not been obtained from you

Your personal data were obtained by us from a respondent to a consultation.

YOUR RIGHTS

You have the right to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data.

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.

You have the right to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed.

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

As your personal data is stored on our IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the European Union. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through the use of Model Contract Clauses.

CONTACT DETAILS

The data controller for your personal data is the Cabinet Office. The contact details for the data controller are:

Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall, London
SW1A 2AS

Public Enquiries: Online Contact Form

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

COMPLAINTS

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.

The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane, Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

or 0303 123 1113, or casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

1. Future Cities Catapult, 2017; Parker 2008 ↩

2. USAG, 2016 ↩

3. Scotland already benefits from a system of this kind in the Scottish Road Works Register. The Geospatial Commission continues to work closely with colleagues in the Scottish government on future developments. ↩