LinesearchbeforeUdig (LSBUD) Digging Up Britain Report
The UK’s Safe Digging Community Has Never Been Stronger
Digging up Britain 2023, the UK’s safe digging industry report, is back for its sixth edition, documenting the latest trends, hot topics and data from all the groundwork taking place across the UK last year.
This must-read and powerful document has been designed to help all those engaged in excavation work learn more about the risks and then reduce utility strikes.
Following the uncertainty of the past two years, 2022 heralded a ‘digging boom’. The country returned to some form of normality and for another consecutive year the safe digging community as a whole has continued to grow with over 3.75 million search enquiries on LSBUD’s portal for underground pipes and cables in 2022. This equates to an extra 384,072 searches being made; a 12 percent increase on the previous year which itself was a record year.
The report reiterates the ‘safe digging for all’ message, and highlights who was digging, where they were digging and why they were digging. It also looks at the challenges being posed by the Geospatial Commission and the water sector.
Finally, the report continues to remind those remaining network operators of the benefit of sharing their data, and those doing the digging that the more people that search, the safer we stay as a nation.
Click now to get your FREE copy for Digging up Britain 2023
“Particularly during the challenges that we have all faced over the last 18 months, it is critical that we can ensure our customers and contractors are able to access our records remotely with an immediate response. This enables them to work safely and also protects our assets. These customers are diverse and wide ranging across a wide section of industry from infrastructure building to domestic works. Through the use of the LSBUD system we look forward to helping them work safely during the continual increase in works across our operational area over the coming years”
Steve Fraser
Chief Executive
“The 2021 LSBUD Digging Up Britain Report is a must-read and powerful insight for all utilities and contractors engaged in any kind of excavation work for street and road works. It is good to see that LSBUD goes from strength-to-strength in its coverage of almost 100 asset owners. The report complements well Streetworks UK’s own survey work in 2020 around excavation working practice, and further reinforces the need to share information on LSBUD’s world class platform.
Mind you, we should be concerned that 500 000km of underground assets remain unregistered, particularly when the infrastructure boom – so neatly described in this Report – is now breaking over us. The Geospatial Commission leadership would do well to read this report closely, and ensure its forthcoming work is additive to existing systems.”
Chief Executive
“While most of the gas network is underground and out of sight, it plays a central role in the daily lives of people across Wales and south west England. From heating homes and powering businesses, to keeping the lights on, 7.5m people rely on our network – now more than ever. We’re committed to protecting the gas network to keep the gas flowing safely. So we’re pleased to be working with LSBUD to enhance the support we can provide groundworkers and civils contractors, helping them and others easily access our plans at the same time as they search for other services in the area.”
Graham Edwards
Chief Executive
