National Safe Digging Week
We’re pleased to confirm that National Safe Digging Week is back for its sixth year, running from Monday 7th to Sunday 13th July 2025, with this year’s theme focusing on “Collaboration”.
This important week is a key moment in the industry calendar, aimed at promoting excavation safety and preventing damage to underground infrastructure. The core message remains unchanged: never dig blind – always search before you dig. This principle has remained at the heart of the campaign since day one and is just as vital today as it has ever been.
Why Collaboration?
Collaboration is about bringing people, organisations, and systems together to make safe digging second nature. It means sharing knowledge, promoting open communication, and aligning efforts across utilities, contractors, local authorities, and infrastructure providers. When we work together, we learn together and ultimately we build a culture of safety that benefits everyone.
How to get involved
Throughout the week, we’ll be sharing daily digital content across our channels, as well as providing customisable templates that organisations can download and use to add their own safe digging messaging and branding. Please keep an eye on our website and social media for this.
If you or your organisation would like to get involved, please reach out to david.gerrard@lsbud.co.uk or marketing@lsbud.co.uk to explore how you can contribute to this vital industry wide initiative.
People are still putting themselves at risk
As the safe digging community continues to grow, it is more important than ever that everyone, from industry professionals, through to members of the public, farmers, fencers, and small scale builders, understand how to operate safely around the UK’s underground network of pipes and cables.
Our latest research into safe digging practices shows that there are almost 1,000 people a month panic searching on Google after hitting an underground asset. Not only does this show that people are not searching before putting a spade in the ground, but they also don’t know what to do once the accident has happened. That means approximately 12,000 people each year are putting themselves in danger via unsafe digging practices, and they are accentuating this risk by having no idea what to do next. Certainly a major worry.
Mistakes do happen, so knowing what to do next is of vital importance. If you think your first reaction in an emergency situation would be any of the below searches, please read about this subject further on our Emergency Procedures page. We have always advocated for staying safe on site or at home, and we truly believe that is has to be your number one priority.
- “I’ve hit a pipe, who pays?’
- “hit a gas pipe in my garden”
- “what to do if you hit a gas pipe”
- “hit power line while digging”
- “help, I’ve gone through a cable”
Remember…
Safe digging is for everyone, so whatever the digging the job – whether you’re carrying out home improvements, just planting a tree or extending your home – always search before you dig.
Watch Cadent’s latest video for 2024 below; it’s to remind contractors (and all of us) to always report any type of damage done during their work to gas pipes or gas assets. No matter how big or small.
