Four million searches, one shared responsibility: Why collaboration must define the future of safe digging

As National Safe Digging Week 2026 focuses on “The Power of Collaboration,” the industry has an opportunity to look beyond awareness and ask a more important question: is our system of planning, sharing information and managing risk, strong enough for the scale of infrastructure change ahead?

Last year, more than four million searches were carried out through LSBUD by organisations and individuals planning excavation works across the UK. For Cadent alone, that resulted in almost two million enquiries relating to activity around gas infrastructure.

That volume should give us confidence, but not comfort. Each search represents a moment where risk can either be reduced or carried forward. It is a reminder that safe digging is not achieved by a single process, platform or organisation. It depends on whether information is understood, decisions are challenged and responsibility is shared across everyone involved.

Ultimately; every plan, permit, asset record and safety procedure, leads to the same point: a person making a decision. As the UK enters one of the largest periods of infrastructure investment in recent history, the quality of those decisions will increasingly depend on how well organisations work together before anyone breaks ground.

The ground beneath us is changing

The UK’s underground environment is becoming busier, more complex and more contested. Full fibre deployment, investment in water infrastructure through Asset Management Period 8, nationally significant projects, new energy connections and low-carbon technology installations, are all increasing activity beneath our streets, pavements, gardens and public spaces.

Individually, none of these activities are unusual. Collectively, they point to a more crowded underground future, where decisions made by one organisation can quickly create risk for another. The pipes and cables below us are not separate systems in practice; they are part of one shared operating environment that keeps homes warm, businesses running and communities connected.

Safe digging is a system challenge

When damage occurs, attention often turns to the point of excavation - who operated the equipment? Who followed the process? Who made the final call? Those questions matter, but they rarely reveal the full picture.

Most asset strikes are shaped much earlier by planning decisions, design assumptions, communication gaps, misinterpreted asset information or poor coordination between organisations working in the same area. By the time the ground is broken, a chain of decisions has already been made. What happens next is often the consequence of how well that chain has held together.

That is why collaboration cannot be treated as a campaign message or a soft safety theme; it is a practical control. It must be built into how work is planned, designed, communicated and delivered. Asset owners, planners, designers, contractors, training providers, industry bodies and regulators, all influence whether work happens safely. No single organisation holds the whole answer, but every organisation holds part of it.

Information only creates value when people act on it

The sector is making progress. Data is becoming more accessible, the National Underground Asset Register is developing, and asset owners continue to invest in better records and safer ways of sharing information. These advances matter. But information alone does not prevent damage.

A plan is only useful if someone understands its limitations. A search result only becomes a control, when it is interpreted correctly. A permit only protects people and assets when it changes behaviour on site. Competence must therefore exist across the whole system: from designers recognising underground constraints, to supervisors challenging risk, to site teams understanding that utility records are a starting point, not a guarantee.

The industry often talks about digital transformation. Perhaps the bigger challenge is behavioural transformation: creating a culture where people are confident to ask questions, share information early, stop when something does not look right and work across organisational boundaries before the risk reaches the ground.

Collaboration is the next safety frontier

The industry often talks about digital transformation. Perhaps the bigger opportunity is behavioural transformation: creating a culture where people are confident to ask questions, share information early, challenge assumptions and stop when something does not look right.

This is where the power of collaboration becomes critical. Safe outcomes rely on connected action - shared responsibility, clear communication and multiple controls working together. For us, and for the wider safe digging community, that means engaging earlier, sharing better information and supporting the people who make critical decisions every day.

It also means widening the conversation beyond traditional industry audiences. The consequences of underground asset damage are felt by everyone: households, businesses, transport networks and essential services. Safe digging is not only an operational issue; it is a part of the resilience in the communities we serve.

The challenge ahead

The UK’s infrastructure ambitions are rightly generating momentum. New networks, new technologies and new investment are critical to growth and the transition to a lower-carbon future. But with every new asset we build, this adds to an underground environment that is already crowded, complex and interconnected.

The real test is not simply whether we can build more. It is whether we can build safely, at pace, in a way that recognises the shared nature of the risk. That will not be solved by technology or awareness alone. It will depend on trust, competence and collaboration across the whole system.

That is why collaboration is not just a message for National Safe Digging Week. It is the leadership challenge that will define the future of safe digging and working safely together.