Street works · England
LA — Location & Avoidance of Underground Apparatus
Finding buried services before you break ground: obtaining and reading plans, identifying apparatus by colour and construction, using locating equipment, and the safe digging practices that keep a spade away from a live cable.
Who holds this certificate
Everyone. LA underpins every other street-works certificate — if it expires, all of them are invalid.
What it covers
5 topics, 140 questions between them.
Plans & Records
30 questions · 4 with a diagram
Identifying Apparatus
30 questions · 3 with a diagram
Risks & Damage
25 questions · 2 with a diagram
Locating Equipment
30 questions · 3 with a diagram
Safe Digging Practices
25 questions · 2 with a diagram
Find It in HSG47
Open-book questions are not really memory tests — they test whether you can find the right page quickly. These 10 drills give you a heading and ask which document and section it sits under, so looking things up under time pressure becomes automatic.
Try 3 drills freeThe theory test
LA is assessed by a theory test of 20 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes. You need 16 out of 20 to pass. The app draws a fresh mock from this certificate's own bank each time and marks it against that pass mark.
Format described as published at the time of writing — confirm it with your assessment centre before you sit the test.
Written against
Every LA question cites one of these, and the explanation names the clause or paragraph so you can check it yourself.
- Safety at Street Works and Road Works (the Red Book)
- HSG47 — Avoiding danger from underground services
- Streetworks UK Volume 1
- DfT qualifications guidance
- New Roads and Street Works Act 1991
- The Street Works (Qualifications of Supervisors and Operatives) Regulations
NRSWA Street Works Revision is independent revision material. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or approved by HAUC(UK), SWQR, any awarding organisation or the Department for Transport, and it does not award a qualification or a card.