Access Principles for the NZUAR

Purpose

To establish clear, transparent, and defensible criteria for granting access to the Underground Asset Register (UAR), ensuring use for legitimate infrastructure and public-good purposes while maintaining trust with utilities, Road Controlling Authorities (RCAs), and other stakeholders.

The platform operator maintains an auditable record of information supplied during onboarding and the basis for decisions granting access to support transparency, consistency, and accountability.

Principles

• Legitimate Purpose: Access is granted only for legitimate infrastructure, utility, excavation, asset management, planning, emergency response, research, or other approved public-good purposes.
• No Public Access: Access is not available to the general public.
• Fair and Consistent Access: Access decisions are made consistently based on operational need, public benefit, risk, and policy criteria. Decisions are not influenced by commercial competition, procurement activities, or competitive advantage.
• Respect Data Ownership: Access is managed in a manner that respects the ownership, rights, obligations, and sensitivities associated with utility and infrastructure data.
• Security and Trustworthiness: Access is granted only where there is reasonable confidence that users and organisations do not present an unacceptable security, misuse, or compliance risk.
• Enable Sector Participation: The onboarding process should minimise unnecessary barriers to participation while maintaining appropriate safeguards.
• Need-to-Know Access: Users are provided access only to the information necessary to perform their role or approved purpose.
• Role-Based Access Control: Access permissions are assigned according to a user’s role, responsibilities, organisation, and geographic area of interest.
• Transparency and Accountability: Access decisions are supported by documented criteria, recorded rationale, and auditable processes.
• Compliance and Governance: Access is managed in accordance with applicable legislation, contractual obligations, governance requirements, and relevant sector principles, including the Gemini Principles.
• Protect Privacy and Commercial Sensitivity: Personal information and commercially sensitive information must be protected from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure.
• Lifecycle Management: User access is regularly reviewed and updated to reflect role changes, organisational changes, inactivity, or termination of access requirements.

Current Access Criteria

Organisational Validation: Before any individual user accounts are processed, the applicant’s organisation must be verified as a legitimate sector participant. The Owner will:

• Verify the legal status and industry standing of the organisation (e.g., via NZBN, professional body registries, or existing contractual relationships with the Subscriber).
• Confirm the organisation has a Legitimate Purpose for accessing the register within the specific territory
• Record the organisation on the Vetted Organisation List for the relevant Subscriber territory.

User Validation: Access may be granted where an applicant:

• Belongs to a recognised organisation operating within the infrastructure, utility, transport, planning, excavation, corridor management or related sectors
• Performs a role relevant to the use of underground asset information, such as:
  • Excavator
  • Designer
  • Planner
  • Project manager
  • Asset manager
  • Corridor manager
  • Locator
  • Relevant operational or support staff
• Uses a valid work email address from a recognised organisation.
• Is associated with an organisation that can be independently verified as active and legitimate.
• Can be individually verified as a legitimate sector participant through publicly available or directly supplied information.

Certain datasets, tools, or platform capabilities may require additional onboarding, guidance, or approval processes based on sensitivity, security, or complexity.

Verification Process

• Applications are assessed against the published access criteria.
• Where information is incomplete or unclear, applicants may be contacted for clarification.
• Applications may be declined where sufficient verification cannot be obtained.
• All decisions are recorded along with supporting rationale for audit and governance purposes

Applicants may request reconsideration where additional supporting information is available.

Offboarding Process

User accounts may be reviewed, suspended, or disabled where:

• The account has been inactive for an extended period
• The user cannot be contacted to confirm ongoing need
• Organisational email addresses become invalid
• The user no longer works for the verified organisation
• There is evidence of misuse or breach of applicable terms or policies

Users must sign in at least once every 6 months to maintain an active account. Failure to verify an email or maintain activity will result in the account being set to ‘Inactive’. Inactive users may receive periodic confirmation requests prior to account suspension or disablement.

As at July 2026