Foreword

Road works are required in order to ensure that the road network is well maintained and the essential utility services that we all use daily such as water, drainage, electricity, gas and telecommunications continue to operate.

The number of registered road works in Scotland has risen in recent years from around 130,000 in 2019 to around 170,000 in 2025. It is therefore even more important that works are as well planned, well managed and well co-ordinated as they can reasonably be.

Road works authorities have the primary duty to co-ordinate all works on the roads they are responsible for and utilities have duties to co-operate with the authorities and each other. The aims of these duties are to ensure safety, minimise inconvenience to road users and protect the integrity of the road and apparatus within it.

Whilst primary legislation and regulations set out the general framework for the co-ordination and planning of works on roads, it is this Code of Practice which sets in place the practical guidance which allows the process to operate on a day to day basis.

This Code of Practice is also relevant for the Scottish Road Works Commissioner in deciding whether a road works authority or a utility has fulfilled its duties to co-ordinate or co-operate respectively.

The Code has been revised and updated by a working group of subject matter experts representing both road works authorities and utilities and I am delighted to endorse it as current best practice.

Stephen Flynn MSP
Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport
23 June 2026