Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has made a recent assessment of the adequacy of the powers available to Local Authorities to hold utility companies to account for defects left behind after excavation work on grassed areas and grass verges.

Highway authorities have a range of powers to deal with utility street works. If the grassed area or verge is part of the public highway, utility companies carrying out excavations need to apply for a permit from the relevant highway authority, and they must reinstate them after works have been completed in line with requirements in the Specification for Reinstatement of Openings in the Highway (SROH). Authorities can inspect the quality of the reinstatement, during works and up to two years later, and can require any defects to be repaired.

New guidance and regulations introducing a performance-based inspections regime came into force on 1 April 2023. The new regime enables highway authorities to carry out more inspections of poorly performing utility companies.