About Street Works Lookup
Street Works Lookup is a free search of the public rules for street works and road works.
What this site is
The rules for street and road works sit in several long documents. Street Works Lookup puts them in one place so you can find the wording of a rule, the section it sits in and its page number.
The site is free to use. It carries no adverts and does not ask you to sign up.
This site is unofficial. No government department, highway authority or industry body runs or endorses it. It does not give legal advice. The official documents are the authority, so check them before you rely on a passage.
The documents
| Document | Version on this site | Official source |
|---|---|---|
| Code of practice for the co-ordination of street and road works | Department for Transport, March 2026. Checked against GOV.UK on 11 November 2026. | GOV.UK |
| Safety at Street Works and Road Works: A Code of Practice | Department for Transport, October 2013, second impression with amendments, June 2014. Checked against GOV.UK on 11 November 2026. | GOV.UK |
| Permit schemes: statutory guidance for highway authorities | Department for Transport, March 2026. Checked against GOV.UK on 11 November 2026. | GOV.UK |
| Permit scheme national conditions | Department for Transport, December 2025. Checked against GOV.UK on 11 November 2026. | GOV.UK |
| Specification for the Reinstatement of Openings in Highways | Fourth edition, May 2020, in the version GOV.UK published on 30 May 2025. Checked against GOV.UK on 11 November 2026. | GOV.UK |
| Street Works (Charges for Unreasonably Prolonged Occupation of the Highway) (England) Regulations 2009 | Revised text generated on 5 August 2026. No outstanding changes were shown on 11 November 2026. | legislation.gov.uk |
| New Roads and Street Works Act 1991 | Revised text generated on 6 November 2026. Changes that legislation.gov.uk has not yet applied are listed as the last entry in the Act. | legislation.gov.uk |
Coverage
The co-ordination code, the permit guidance, the permit conditions and the charges regulations apply in England. The reinstatement specification on this site is the one published for England. The safety code covers England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and some of its requirements differ between nations. The Act also contains provisions for Scotland (Part IV) and provisions that apply in Wales. Check that a passage applies where your works are.
Accuracy
A computer extracted the search text from the published PDFs, so the layout of some tables differs from the original. Every page and section also has an image of the original PDF page, which shows diagrams and tables exactly as published. Page numbers match the PDF page numbers. Rules change, so compare the version dates above with the official source.
How to search
Type a keyword or pick one from the A to Z list on the search page. The search matches plurals and common abbreviations. Type "section 74" or "page 34" to jump straight there. Put a phrase in quotation marks to match it exactly.
Licence
This site contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence. The safety code was published under the Open Government Licence v2.0. The other documents are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
The codes of practice, the guidance and the specification are Crown copyright, Department for Transport. The Act and the regulations are Crown copyright and come from legislation.gov.uk. The official road works sign images on the Signs page are Crown copyright. They come from the Department for Transport's traffic sign images and Know Your Traffic Signs on GOV.UK, which are published under the Open Government Licence v3.0.