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Main contractors aim to save industry £25m

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A group of some of the UK’s largest contractors have pledged to adopt government-endorsed pre-qualification register Constructionline, minimum health & safety assessment standard, Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) and PQQ standard PAS91:2013 in a bid to streamline procurement within their supply chains.

Vinci, Kier, Bouygues UK, Lend Lease, Seddon, Longcross Construction, Lakehouse, Bullock and McLaughlin & Harvey are all members of the Constructionline Advisory Group, which the PQQ service uses to engage with the industry on current issues in procurement and supply chain management.

The decision will remove the need for thousands of sub-contractors to duplicate PQQs and Stage One health & safety assessments.

With the average PQQ & Health & Safety Assessment costing a sub-contractor £650 to complete, as well as the ongoing cost (£300 per sub-contractor) and burden to Main Contractors of verifying and maintaining this information, the move will save the group and their supply-chains in excess of £25m every year.

Of the Top 100 UK Contractors, 30 have also adopted the same principals, which Construcitonline estimates could save the industry up to £100m a year.

A further 30% of the UKs largest contractors have also adopted these principals saving the industry up to £100m per annum.

Constructionline, which sits on the government’s PAS91 steering group and is a founder-member of the SSIP Forum, is now consulting with the group on a number of issues such as the pre-qualification of materials suppliers and forthcoming changes to CDM regulation.

Rebecca Sperti, director at Constructionline, said: “This agreement is a huge milestone for Constructionline, SSIP and PAS91. It also marks a major step forward in the industry’s on-going quest to reduce duplication and simplify procurement for second tier suppliers.

“Having long been the established PQQ service for local and central government, our mission has been to broaden our reach into the private sector through tier one contractors. With some of the industry’s biggest names making this commitment then we have made great progress and we want to continue to engage with many more.

“The group has shown real leadership to make significant changes to their own practices to align their systems with the three standards, which will deliver massive benefits to thousands of smaller contractors.”

A member of the Advisory Group said: “The benefits of utilising Constructionline are vast – for main contractors it means we create efficiencies internally – contractor documentation is sourced and kept up to date for us. It reduces our risk as Constructionline continually monitor our sub-contractors for us to ensure they have the relevant insurances, licences and financial stability to work in the industry and we have peace of mind in knowing we are aligned to Government initiatives like PAS91 and Safety Schemes in Procurement. Alongside this Constructionline provide us with support in sourcing local, small businesses for our regional projects.”

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