About NUAR

The Geospatial Commission, part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, is building a digital map of underground pipes and cables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland - the National Underground Asset Register (NUAR).

NUAR is improving the efficiency and safety of the way we install, maintain, operate and repair our buried infrastructure by providing secure access to data from over 600 public and private sector asset owners. These will include over 600 gas, water, electric and telecommunications companies and local authorities.

Currently workers must contact multiple organisations and wait on average over six days just to get the information they need. With NUAR, they can get that information instantly, any time of the day, any day of the year. This means planners and excavators get access to the data they need, when they need it, to carry out their work effectively and safely. NUAR also includes features to keep data secure and improve its quality over time.

This will lead to economic growth of at least £400 million per annum through increased efficiency of data sharing and excavations, fewer accidental strikes on underground pipes and cables, and reduced disruptions for the public and businesses. It will also contribute to building the infrastructure needed across the country, such as new roads, rail and houses.

NUAR will help those who plan and carry out the digging work do their jobs more effectively and safely. This not only improves public services but also people’s lives.

Minimum viable product

An initial private BETA version of NUAR, also called the minimum viable product (MVP), is live across England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The MVP includes all core functionality to meet the ‘safe dig’ use case, allowing users to both plan for future adoption and provide valuable feedback to enhance the service further.

The MVP includes data from over 200 asset owners, including data from most of the major energy and water providers, such as Welsh Water, Cadent Gas and Northern Ireland Electricity, several major telecommunications companies, including Virgin Media O2, as well as smaller providers of these services, transport organisations and local authorities.

Find more about the NUAR MVP.

Current work

• The NUAR platform will be fully operational by the end of 2025.

• Proposed measures to update existing legislation were announced in the King’s Speech 2024, which would take advantage of opportunities provided by data and technology advancements to simplify and expedite the process by which asset data is shared.

• A discovery project is underway, exploring the potential benefits of widening access to NUAR and the constraints surrounding new propositions. Following an extensive, open and fruitful period of stakeholder engagement, we are now in the process of analysing all the evidence captured. Please look out for future updates on this webpage, for the latest news on this exciting work as it progresses.

Find out more:

In the video below, we provide an introduction to NUAR and its objectives:

NUAR explainer

In the video below, we provide a demonstration of the NUAR platform and its features:

NUAR platform

Contact us

If you have any questions, or if you want to speak to our onboarding team about signing up to NUAR, please contact our Service Desk on email at support@nuar.uk or call 02380 056139.

For media enquiries, please email press@dsit.gov.ukgeospatialcommission@dsit.gov.uk