In 2022, the previous government consulted on the future of the National Underground Asset Register to elicit views on current practices in relation to how data is shared and accessed, the potential need for legislative reform to ensure data in the register is complete and up-to-date, and the running of the service once fully operational. The consultation also elicited views on the future funding model.
	The consultation closed in June 2022 and received 164 responses. These represented a range of interested groups, including local authorities, utility companies, surveyors, regulators and members of the public. The findings included the view that legislative reform would be needed to ensure workers are able to access complete data through NUAR; a preference for the NUAR database to continue to be controlled by government due to commercial and security risk; and calls to explore opportunities for NUAR data to be accessed for other use cases or by other user groups. There was no consensus on who should fund NUAR in the operational phase but general agreement that those who benefit from the service should contribute. In response, the previous government committed to:
Developing a charging framework that takes into account the comments raised by respondents;
Continuing to explore potential legislative reform; and
Considering opportunities for the wider market to enhance the NUAR service.
	The previous government's response to the consultation was published on 24 October 2022.
Consultations National Underground Asset Register