NRSWA Street Works Card Explained: Units, Renewal and Cost

The "NRSWA card" is the street works card issued by the Street Works Qualifications Register (SWQR). It lists the street works certificates you hold, and the law behind it is the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991. Any job that breaks up or opens the road or pavement needs at least one qualified operative on site the whole time, and digging needs a qualified supervisor as well. Each certificate lasts five years, and you renew it with a short open-book test.

Contractors ask for it constantly. On 17 October 2026, 57 of the 190 roles live on CivilsJobs, from 19 different employers, named NRSWA or street works tickets: 12 ganger and foreman roles, 12 highways, 11 utilities, 10 groundworker and 6 HGV driver roles among them.

What the law actually requires

Section 67 of the Act puts two duties on the "undertaker", the organisation doing the work, which includes anyone holding a street works licence:

• where the work involves breaking up the street, it must be supervised by someone with a supervisor qualification;
• whenever the street is being broken up or opened, there must be "on site at all times when any such works are in progress at least one person having a prescribed qualification as a trained operative".

The offence is the undertaker's, not yours: a fine of up to level 5 on the standard scale. That is why contractors care so much about the card. The supervisor doesn't have to stand on site all day, and the Department for Transport notes that one qualified supervisor might cover several sites. Work that only opens the street, such as lifting an access cover, needs an operative but no supervisor.

A supervisor card does not make you an operative. The DfT's guidance is blunt about it: "A supervisor qualification does not mean you are qualified to work as an operative." If you do both, you need both sets of certificates.

The 16 certificates

Since 6 April 2017, England has used 16 separate certificates instead of units, and Scotland's have matched them since 4 September 2017. Each one covers a type of work:

Operative	Supervisor
LA: Location and avoidance of underground apparatus (key)	LA: Location and avoidance of underground apparatus (key)
O1: Signing, lighting and guarding (key)	S1: Monitoring signing, lighting and guarding (key)
O2: Excavation in the highway	S2: Monitoring excavation in the highway
O3: Reinstatement and compaction of backfill materials	S3: Monitoring reinstatement and compaction of backfill materials
O4: Reinstatement of sub-base and base in non-bituminous materials	S4: Monitoring reinstatement of sub-base and base in non-bituminous materials
O5: Reinstatement in cold-lay bituminous materials	S5: Monitoring reinstatement in bituminous materials
O6: Reinstatement in hot-lay bituminous materials	S6: Monitoring reinstatement of concrete slabs
O7: Reinstatement of concrete slabs	S7: Monitoring reinstatement of modular surfaces and concrete footways
O8: Reinstatement of modular surfaces and concrete footways

In Scotland, O2 and S2 say "road" instead of "highway". Supervisors have one bituminous certificate, S5, covering both hot and cold lay.

The key certificates are the ones to watch. An operative needs LA and O1, plus the certificate for the work: DfT's own example is that someone who only does hot-lay reinstatement needs the two key certificates plus O6. A supervisor needs LA and S1 plus the matching S certificate. Beyond the key certificates there is no required combination, so you hold what your work needs. And if a key certificate lapses, the rest go with it: in DfT's words, "if LA expires, every certificate on the back of the card becomes invalid", until you renew it.

Decoding the old unit numbers

Adverts still use the old numbering. The Clancy Group asks for "NRSWA Units 1 and 2 (Signing, Lighting and Guarding)" and a Kier highways role for "Streetworks qualifications units 1-9". Under the 1992 regulations, which Wales and Northern Ireland still use, Unit 1 was location and avoidance, Unit 2 signing, lighting and guarding, and Units 3 to 9 the excavation and reinstatement units, ending with Unit 9, modular surfaces and concrete footways. Units 10 to 16 were the supervisor versions.

So today:

• Units 1 and 2 are LA and O1, the two operative key certificates;
• Units 1 to 9 are the full operative set, LA and O1 to O8;
• Units 10 to 16, with Unit 1, are the supervisor set, S1 to S7 with LA.

DfT confirms the pattern directly: "LA, O1, O5 and O6 (i.e. units 1, 2, 6 and 7 under the old system)".

Signs and barriers on their own

You don't need a street works card just to set up signing, lighting and guarding, because that alone isn't street works under the Act. You do still need to be appropriately trained under the safety code, and DfT says a card with O1 on it is one way of showing you are. The same goes for location and avoidance on its own, which doesn't legally need LA.

How to get the card

1. Find a centre. Contact one of the awarding bodies SWQR lists (CABWI, City & Guilds, Energy & Environment Awards, Highfield, Lantra, NOCN, Smart Awards and Qualifications Scotland), which will point you to an approved assessment centre near you. SWQR doesn't hold lists of centres itself.
2. Get assessed. Training first is optional. The initial assessment is a practical observation at a site that meets the Act's definition of a street, plus a 20-question multiple-choice exam for each certificate, with 45 minutes per exam and a pass mark of 80%, so 16 out of 20. Both parts should normally be done within six weeks. Operative and supervisor certificates can't be assessed at the same event, and supervisor candidates have to watch real street works, not video.
3. The centre registers you. Once the awarding body issues your certificates, the centre applies to SWQR for your card, which is normally posted to the centre. SWQR asks you to allow up to 15 working days before chasing it.

SWQR says training and assessment take one to five days, depending on how many certificates you're going for. Assessments are in English only, for clear communication on site.

What it costs

Centres set their own course prices, and SWQR recommends shopping around. SWQR's own card fees, from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, are published on its site:

Application	Fee
Initial registration	£39.80
Reassessment	£39.80
Additional qualifications	£31.90
Reassessment with additional qualifications	£71.70
Re-registration (Wales and Northern Ireland)	£31.90
Replacement card	£31.90

The registration fee is normally handled by the centre and included in the course price.

How long it lasts and how to renew

Each certificate lasts five years from the date the awarding body certificated it. Cards under the England and Scotland rules have no single expiry date: the key certificates sit on the front with their own dates. There is no grace period once a certificate has expired.

Renewal is a reassessment: a theory test only, 20 multiple-choice questions per certificate, taken at an approved centre. It's open book in that you can use the listed codes of practice, but no notes or phones. Training is optional. Bring photo ID and your current card.

When you renew changes how much you get:

• In the last 12 months: you lose nothing, because the new five years run on from the old expiry date. DfT's example is a certificate renewed with 10 months left, which then lasts five years and 10 months.
• With one to four years left: you get a fixed six years from the renewal date, which is handy for lining up certificates that expire at different times.
• After it has expired: you can't work on it, but you can still renew by reassessment for up to five years. After that you start again with initial assessments.

SWQR recommends reassessing around six months before expiry, and it offers free reminders 30, 60 and 90 days ahead. Only reassess the certificates you want to keep: any you leave out are lost once they expire.

Wales and Northern Ireland work differently

Wales still runs on the 1992 regulations and Northern Ireland on its 1998 regulations. There, certificates come as Group Awards, such as "Excavation in the road/highway (LA, O1 & O2)", and you can't hold single units. The card has an overall expiry date on the front.

Renewal there is by re-registration: a form and a fee to SWQR, with no test, up to three months after the card expires. The catch is where you can then work. A card registered under the England and Scotland rules is valid in all four nations while its units are current. A re-registered Wales or Northern Ireland card is valid in Wales and Northern Ireland only. If you reassess instead, you move onto the England and Scotland rules automatically, and there is no going back to re-registration.

Wales consulted on matching England and Scotland in 2018, and the 2022 response found every respondent in favour. In October 2023 the Welsh Government said the work had been put on hold, and we found no new Welsh regulations since.

How your card gets checked

Employers ask to see the card. If you can't produce it, SWQR will confirm whether you are on the register and which certificates you hold, with their expiry dates, by email or by phone, up to three records per call. The current cards carry a QR code holding the main card data. We found no official public online checker.

In England, highway authorities check during their sample inspections that the undertaker is meeting its section 67 duty on qualifications. In Scotland, the new co-ordination code in force from 1 September 2026 lets a roads authority issue a Qualification Notice when it can't see a card on site. The undertaker should answer through the Scottish Road Works Register within four hours on a working day, or by 10am the next day if the notice comes after noon.

What's changing

• 1 February 2026: Qualifications Scotland replaced SQA as the body that runs the register. SWQR's email addresses changed with it, though older documents still give the SQA one.
• 13 March 2026: in England, work on public electric vehicle charge points carried out under a street works permit became "street works" under the Act.
• 21 September 2026: the Department for Transport opened a consultation on a new Safety at Street Works and Road Works code, the "Red Book", which covers signing, lighting and guarding. It closes on 14 December 2026. The 2013 code had a six-month lead-in before it came into force, and DfT is asking whether the same would work again.

Where the card gets you work

Contractors name it as essential for some roles and desirable for many more. Cappagh's interceptor removal gangers need an "NRSWA (Street Works) Qualification" alongside confined space certification, and Breheny lists "NRSWA Supervisor" among the qualifications for its general foreman. If you're starting out, our guide to becoming a groundworker covers the CSCS card and the route into civils.

Browse utilities jobs, highways jobs or ganger and foreman roles on CivilsJobs, every one straight from the contractor hiring.