WIREDGOV

Ordnance Survey has been appointed by the Geospatial Commission as the future operator of NUAR, which will be incorporated into the National Mapping Service’s public task. It will move to public beta service in spring 2025, and allow eligible organisations to roll NUAR out across their workforces.

• See the full statement from Ordnance Survey
• See the announcement from the Geospatial Commission

In welcoming the news, Nick Chapallaz, Managing Director of GeoPlace recently said:

“Over the last 2 years, GeoPlace has been a member of the NUAR Delivery Consortium, actively supporting the onboarding of asset owners. We look forward to continued collaboration with Ordnance Survey and the Geospatial Commission to promote safe excavation practices and unlocking the power of geospatial data to drive economic growth.”

Background

NUAR is an emerging digital service, which provides instant access to a map of underground assets (i.e. pipes and cables) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland already benefits from a system of this kind, known as the Scottish Community Apparatus Data Vault (or Vault for short), and the Geospatial Commission has worked closely with colleagues in the Scottish Government on this development.

OS is Great Britain’s National Mapping Service and has been mapping the surface of the nation since 1791. As part of its public task, it manages, maintains and provides access to the National Geographic Database, which contains over 500 million features and is updated over 20,000 times a day. OS data and services underpin critical activities across the country, such as getting ambulances to patients quickly, registering to vote and the provision of energy, water and broadband.

NUAR has recently won the ‘Digital Innovation in Productivity’ category at the Digital Construction Awards, and been shortlisted for the following awards:

• New Civil Engineer (NCE) Awards 2024 – Technology Solutions Provider of the Year
• Digital Construction Awards 2024 – Digital Innovation in Health, Safety and Wellbeing
• Management Consultancies Association awards 2024 – Performance Improvement in the Public Sector Award
• Association for Project Management awards 2024 – Programme of the Year
• Civil Service Awards 2024 – Creative Solutions

Notes

About GeoPlace

GeoPlace LLP is a public sector limited liability partnership between the Local Government Association (LGA) and Ordnance Survey (OS).

GeoPlace is a world-class expert in address and street information management, working internationally as well as in the UK to help our partners and customers maximise the value of their spatial information for better decision making.

GeoPlace maintains a national infrastructure that supports the address and street information needs of the public and private sectors. Its work relies heavily on close working relationships with every local authority in England and Wales. This relationship has been developed over 15 years, to build the National Address Gazetteer infrastructure and National Street Gazetteer. OS develops the range of AddressBase products from the National Address Gazetteer and OS MasterMap Highways Network from the NSG. Both datasets underpin efficient and effective services, bringing direct service delivery benefits to users.

These unique reference numbers link datasets together and share information with other organisations who also use them. They provide a comprehensive, complete and consistent identifier throughout a property's life cycle – from planning permission or street naming through to demolition.

For more information see https://www.geoplace.co.uk/