Invalid credentials, please check and try again.
Your account has not been verified by your nominated rep.
Your account has been suspended.
Sorry, an error occurred during registration. Please try again.
Your details have been passed to ECA and you will hear from us shortly.
This section outlines how to make use of the Common Assessment Standard (CAS) and Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) during health and safety pre-qualification and provides practical advice and information on successfully engaging with pre-qualification to promote your business and help win contracts.
The Common Assessment Standard (CAS) has been developed by Build UK and other industry bodies, with ECA support. The aim of the CAS is to provide an industry recognised PQ standard, widely specified and recognised by commercial and public sector buyers.
A growing list of major contractors and clients ‐ including Balfour Beatty, Costain, HS2 JV, Mace, Multiplex and Skanska ‐ is adopting the Common Assessment Standard. These main contractors will specify the CAS for their supply chain, and the supply chain should only need to obtain one CAS certification to tender for work with a buyer who has adopted the CAS. Over time, the CAS may also make more inroads into the commercial and public sector.
It is an industry‐agreed question set with two levels of certification ‐ desktop and site‐based. Assessment is delivered by any one of three Recognised Assessment Bodies. For companies that employ fewer than 10 employees and have a turnover below £1.8 million or a balance sheet total less than £1.8 million, the assessment questions are applied in a proportionate way.
Data sharing enables contractors and clients to obtain key PQ data on their suppliers from any Recognised Assessment Body, regardless of which one carried out the certification to the Common Assessment Standard. This means that those buyers who have adopted the CAS should no longer need to specify a particular assessment body for their supply chain. The data is updated in ‘real time’, and it will be shown where a company’s certification has lapsed if they have not provided updated information. Data is shared only where a company has provided their consent.
The Common assessment Standard recognises certification to SSIP level as meeting the health and safety requirements of the CAS, thereby reducing duplicated effort and costs. In addition, some buyers may still only require SSIP certification rather than CAS certification. You can find out more about SSIP here.
SSIP member schemes include: CHAS, SafeContractor, SMAS, Exor, Altius and CQMS. ECA has an SSIP Member discount arrangement with CHAS.
Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) is the leading umbrella scheme for bodies that assess contractors to nationally-recognised health and safety 'core criteria'.
The main aim of SSIP, which is supported by the ECA, is to reduce pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) paperwork and its associated costs, and thus make it easier for businesses and organisations to tender for contracts. The aims of SSIP are also supported by the HSE.
Historically, many contractors have found that they have had to be assessed by numerous pre-qualification schemes to be eligible to tender for various contracts. ECA's aim is to reduce this number significantly.
This section outlines the role of SSIP and highlights the ECA web-facility for ECA members to show they have achieved SSIP compliance.
SSIP has adopted health and safety ‘core criteria’ as its basic standard (developed by HSE, with input from ECA and others). The criteria also align with those in PAS 91, the BSI construction PQQ document.
SSIP encourages clients to mutually recognise SSIP member schemes, meaning clients should no longer require repeat evidence for so-called "Stage 1" pre-qualification (Stage 1 refers to general enquiries about contractor health and safety capability while Stage 2 refers to project or job-specific enquires).
A list of participating PQQ/PQA schemes can be found on the SSIP website here.
ECA is a significant player within the "Safety Schemes in Procurement" initiative (SSIP), and is directly represented on the SSIP management board.
