What is NRSWA (New Roads and Street Works Act 1991)?

Key facts

• NRSWA = the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, the UK Act of Parliament that regulates work in and near the public highway.
• Anyone carrying out excavation, signing, or reinstatement on a UK highway on behalf of a utility, contractor or local authority must hold a current NRSWA Streetworks card.
• The card is issued per unit passed. Operatives and supervisors take different units.
• The Streetworks card is valid for 5 years and is renewed by retest.
• The technical standard for how openings must be reinstated is the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH), published by the UK Department for Transport.

What the Act covers, and why it exists

The New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 brought UK highway works under a single legal framework. Before 1991, utility companies and contractors operated under a patchwork of older statutes and local agreements, with no consistent national rules on competence, signing, excavation, or reinstatement quality. The Act fixed that. It set out who can open a UK highway, the notice that must be given to the highway authority, how the site must be signed and protected, who is allowed to do the work, and how the opening must be reinstated when the job is finished. Compliance is enforced jointly by highway authorities (typically the county or unitary council) and the HSE on the safety side.

Who the Act applies to

NRSWA applies to anyone whose work involves opening, working in, or working near a UK public highway. That is much wider than people often assume. A “highway” under the Act includes carriageways, footways, verges, lay-bys and the airspace and subsoil around them. Typical roles caught by the Act include:

• Utility operatives laying or maintaining gas, water, electricity, telecoms or fibre.
• Civils contractors digging service connections or trenches for new development.
• Local authority highway maintenance teams.
• Sub-contractors doing reinstatement (the surface make-good after the opening is closed).
• Supervisors signing off operative work on behalf of any of the above.

If you or your team is operating in any of these roles, every person on site must hold the NRSWA Streetworks card units appropriate to the work they are doing. Without the card, the highway authority can stop the work and the employer is exposed to enforcement.

NRSWA training and the Streetworks card

NRSWA training is the formal route to the Streetworks card. Training is delivered by an accredited centre such as MPTT and assessed against the standard administered by the SQA Streetworks Qualifications Register. The Streetworks card is a photo-ID card carrying the units the operator has passed. There is no single “NRSWA card”: the card is a record of units, and the units you hold are dictated by the work you do. An operative laying gas mains will typically hold Unit 1 (Cat & Genny), Unit 2 (Signing, Lighting and Guarding) and one or more reinstatement units. A supervisor will hold the equivalent Supervisor units. See our units FAQ for the full unit breakdown.

Operative versus Supervisor

NRSWA splits the workforce into two roles:

• Operative. Does the practical work: opens the highway, signs the site, lays the service, backfills, reinstates. Holds Operative units.
• Supervisor. Oversees Operative work on site, monitors compliance with the Act and the SROH, signs off completed work. Holds Supervisor units, which carry an “S” prefix and are assessed at a higher level than the Operative equivalents.

A site must have at least one trained Supervisor in charge of the trained Operatives. Full breakdown in our Operative vs Supervisor FAQ.

The 5-year card and renewal cycle

NRSWA Streetworks cards are valid for five years from the date of issue. Renewal is by retest, taken before the expiry date. Operators with multiple units renew them on the same five-year cycle, but each unit must be retested individually. Renewals can usually be scheduled at our centre or on-site for larger groups. Full detail in our card validity and renewal FAQ.

The SROH technical standard

NRSWA Operative training is built around the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH), the technical code published by the UK Department for Transport. SROH defines the materials, layering, compaction and finish required for a legal reinstatement. Units 3 to 9 of the NRSWA Operative syllabus map onto specific SROH chapters. Understanding SROH is the difference between a reinstatement that passes inspection and one that is dug up and redone at the contractor’s expense.

Why NRSWA matters to employers

For employers in the utilities and civils sector, NRSWA compliance is not optional. The highway authority can refuse the works notice, stop active works, issue Fixed Penalty Notices and (for repeat or serious failures) prosecute. Insurance cover is typically conditional on Operative and Supervisor competence. Operators sent to a public highway without the Streetworks card unit for the work being done expose the employer to enforcement and the operator to disciplinary action. Booking NRSWA training is the lowest-friction way to keep the workforce legal and the works programme on schedule.

Related questions

• Who needs NRSWA training?
• What’s the difference between NRSWA Operative and Supervisor?
• What units does NRSWA training cover?
• How long is the NRSWA Streetworks card valid for, and how do I renew it?
• What is the Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways (SROH)?

Quick answers to related questions

Who needs NRSWA training?

Anyone working in or near a UK public highway on behalf of a utility, contractor or local authority. Includes operatives doing excavation, signing or reinstatement, and supervisors monitoring the work. Without the card, the highway authority can stop the works.

What units does NRSWA training cover?

There are 12 numbered units on the Operative side and equivalent S-prefixed units for Supervisors. Unit 1 is Cat & Genny (Location and Avoidance of Underground Apparatus); Unit 2 is Signing, Lighting and Guarding; Units 3 to 9 cover excavation and reinstatement.

How long is the NRSWA card valid for?

Five years from the date of issue. Renewal is by retest, taken before the expiry date. Each unit on the card is retested individually but they can usually be batched into a single attendance.

Last updated: 2026-05-21. Reviewed by the MPTT NRSWA training team, SQA-registered instructors and assessors.