Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Statutory undertaker definition

What does Statutory undertaker mean? In practice, a statutory undertaker is an organisation carrying on public utility or transport functions under specific statutory powers (for example, electricity, gas, water and wastewater, sewerage, telecommunications, rail, ports and airports). The term is defined for particular purposes in legislation rather than by one universal definition. Examples include the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 and Highways Act 1980 (England and Wales), the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Act 1997, the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, and, in Ireland, the Planning and Development Act 2000, alongside sector statutes (electricity, gas, water, transport and electronic communications). Key legal features and practical...

Street works and statutory undertakers: NRSWA 1991 duties, permits, notices, lane rental, permit schemes and common law liability (England and Wales)

Published by a LexisNexis Local Government expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note outlines the procedure for statutory undertakers and holders of street works licences to use the highway for utility works and apparatus under the statutory framework in the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 (NRSWA 1991) and other enabling legislation. It explains who qualifies as statutory undertakers and sets out the duty of care owed, both under statute and at common law, to other highway users.

Street works at common law

At common law, interfering with the surface of a highway amounts to a nuisance. In the nineteenth century, utility companies seeking to route underground pipes and cables along highways—though these were the most obvious corridors—were, in the absence of statutory powers, restrained by the courts from placing their apparatus. The Sheffield Gas and Cambridge Gas cases illustrate this principle.

Street works—liability in negligence

Even where legislation authorises interference with, or use of, the highway for utility works and apparatus, statutory undertakers and those holding street works licences continue to owe a duty of care to other highway users...

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Nicholas Hancox

Nicholas Hancox Solicitors

Nicholas qualified in 1977. He specialises in Education Law, Local Government Law and Highways Law and has been authoring and editing for LexisNexis since 2000....

Alastair Frew

Lodders Solicitors

I am a partner in Lodders’ Real Estate Group and head of the Business Property team, having joined the firm in 2002. My clients often include business owners, commercial developers, private investors, and niche housebuilders, as well as the financial institutions that fund them. I also lead the Renewable Energy team at Lodders. In this team, we guide a growing number of landowners through the complex documentation needed for matters like forming a solar PV development, establishing a battery storage scheme, and incorporating a wind farm. I have published books through Law Brief Publishing on the subjects of highways and renewable energy, and regularly contribute to Lexis Nexis....

Piers Riley-Smith

Kings Chambers

Piers has a varied planning, environment, licensing and highways practice. Piers is ranked in Chambers and Partners 2023 where Clients have said: " Piers Riley-Smith is a strong planning junior”“An enthusiastic and excellent communicator as an advocate, and within the professional team.”Piers is ranked in the Legal 500 as a “Rising Star” and is noted as being “approachable and fully committed to the job in hand, providing good advice and giving a very positive impression to clients.’Planning and EnvironmentHe is regularly instructed by local authorities, developers and the wider public in planning inquiries. He has also been instructed by both local authorities and developers at local plan and neighborhood plan exams. He appears in the High Court and Court of Appeal on behalf of local authorities, and private companies or developers, and local resident groups. He also accepts pro bono briefs from the...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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