Contractor Pre-qualification Reform

B&ES continues to pursue a strategy designed to counter the proliferation of discrete contractor qualification schemes and to put in place “deemed to satisfy” arrangements that offer its members automatic entry on to “approved” lists.

B&ES has achieved membership of the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) Forum, which was established by four of the UK’s leading operators of approved contractor schemes. Forum members recognise each other’s schemes – so that, when firms have pre-qualified under one scheme, they are “deemed to satisfy” the health and safety requirements of all SSIP schemes. This enables B&ES member companies automatically to satisfy the health and safety tender requirements of the increasing number of clients who are limiting their use of approved contractor schemes to those operated by members of the SSIP Forum.

The Association has also been engaged – through the Specialist Engineering Contractors’ (SEC) Group – in developing PAS91, a “publicly available specification” that establishes minimum quality criteria for pre-qualification schemes.

Current Position

Following the introduction of the PAS91 publicly available specification, B&ES is actively promoting its use across the public and private sectors.

The Next Steps

The Association continues to press the Department for Business Innovation and Skills to improve the content and clarity of PAS91 and to introduce an effective awareness programme across public sector purchasers to promote the benefits of adopting the specification.

Contact

For more details e-mail Rod Pettigrew