The Scottish Road Works Register

Background

The Scottish Road Works Commissioner (the Commissioner) is required to keep a register called the Scottish Road Works Register (SRWR).

The Commissioner uses the information held within the SRWR for reporting and measuring both undertakers’ and road works authorities’ performance.

NRSWA allows for regulations to be made, to prescribe certain information that is to be contained within the SRWR. This chapter of the Code of Practice provides further details on:

  • the information that is to be held;
  • how that information should be held; and
  • who is responsible for providing that information.

The Commissioner is required to make arrangements so that the SRWR is made available to all those wishing to view it, including members of the public.

General Arrangements for the Keeping of the SRWR

Information relating to all roads, as defined within NRSWA, will be held on the SRWR. Particular arrangements for holding the information will depend upon the status of the road. Every road will fall into one of the following scenarios:

Roads where the local roads authority is responsible for the maintenance – This covers the vast majority of roads where road works are being undertaken.

Roads where the local roads authority is not responsible for the maintenance – This includes the motorway and trunk road network in Scotland managed by Transport Scotland. It also includes any roads and bridges managed by statutory authorities e.g. Network Rail. These road authorities maintain their own information within the additional tables of the SRWR, pertaining to those roads and bridges. Information on the roads, such as the Unique Street Reference Number (USRN) and road name will also be contained within the SRWR and will be referenced in such a way as to indicate who the responsible road works authority is and provide the necessary contact information.

Prospective Public Roads – Information relating to prospective public roads, will be contained in the SRWR and will be referenced in such a way as to indicate the status of the road. There is no requirement for the road works authority to register the road manager for these roads.

Private Roads – Information relating to private roads, which is known, will be contained in the SRWR and will be referenced in such a way as to indicate the status of the road. There is no requirement for the road works authority to register the road manager for these roads.

Form of SRWR

The SRWR in Scotland is an online system.

All records shall be referenced to the National Street Gazetteer (NSG) using the USRN, and allow retrieval by USRN, road name, road description or road number.

Contents of SRWR

The SRWR shall contain the following information:

  • all works or occupation of any road as defined;
  • the National Street Gazetteer (NSG);
  • details of all roads subject to special conditions;
  • details of road reinstatement category for the purposes of undertakers’ reinstatement obligations;
  • details of all apparatus placed in or found since 1 April 2024; and
  • details of any unexpected buried objects that are found during the works.

Giving Notice

When giving notice of works in roads the information required shall be entered within the SRWR.

Where works are to be carried out on private roads, paper or electronic copies (in addition to the SRWR) of that notice shall be sent to the road manager by the works promoter. In many cases the road manager will be the householder adjacent to the road.

National Street Gazetteer and Associated Data

All information contained in the SRWR shall be referenced to the NSG. The SRWR will contain full details of the relevant NSG entries enabling information to be identified by any appropriate road reference (USRN).

To allow correct referencing of notice information to roads, the information within the NSG, as held within the SRWR, must be correct and up to date.

The road works authority, who is acting as the organisation with responsibility for naming or numbering a road, is responsible for recording information on the register of all roads within their area. This is achieved by a minimum of quarterly updates provided by road works authorities.

The NSG contains details of road designations within the Associated Data (AsD). The procedures for making and withdrawing designations are contained within Chapter 4 of this Code of Practice.

Designations must be recorded within the AsD and any new, withdrawn or amended designations shall be recorded on the SRWR.

The conventions describing the content and make up for the National Street Gazetteer are currently maintained by the Improvement Service. These conventions can be found on their website OSG | One Scotland Gazetteer.

Prospectively Maintainable Roads

Section 146 of NRSWA provides that, where road works authorities are satisfied that a road in their area is likely to become a public road, they may make a declaration to that effect. Such a road must also be included in the local street gazetteer, which amongst other things, will be expected to identify the following:

  • public roads;
  • prospective public roads; and
  • private roads of which the roads authority has knowledge, together with details of the road manager where that is known.

This Code applies to prospective public roads just as it does to public roads.

In the case of private roads, notices should be served on the road manager in the form of letters or emails as well as being entered in the SRWR if the road exists in the gazetteer.

Private roads and prospective public roads are to be identified as such in the Associated Data sets of the SRWR.

Community Apparatus Data Vault

The Scottish Road Works Register has information relating to the location of apparatus. Section 138A and 139 of NRSWA require organisations to provide details of the apparatus they install, maintain or discover unexpectedly to the Community Apparatus Data Vault on the Scottish Road Works Register.