A group of the UK’s largest contractors and house builders have taken significant steps to further simplify the paperwork their supply chains complete, removing the need for thousands of material suppliers, manufacturers and consultants to duplicate information during the procurement process.
Members of Constructionline’s Advisory Steering group have previously worked together to drive uptake of PAS 91:2013 and Safety Schemes in Procurement (an umbrella organisation comprising health and safety assessment schemes and certification bodies), creating savings of an estimated £100 million a year across the industry.
These companies, including Hill, Lakehouse, Lendlease, Seddon Construction, VINCI Construction and Wates have now collaborated to simplify and tailor Constructionline’s supplier assessment questionnaire to ensure it is fit for purpose for three distinct supplier populations: material suppliers, consultants and contractors.
The group have been able to devise question sets that are relevant only to the work each type of supplier undertakes, reducing unnecessary administration. Furthermore, because the question sets have been devised by some of the country’s leading buying organisations, suppliers can be confident that they are providing information that relevant decision makers want to know in order to do business with them.
These questions, which align to PAS 91:2013, the standard question set developed by the Government and construction industry and sponsored by BIS, have been adopted by Constructionline.
Gerard Cox from Wates, a member of the Advisory Steering Group said “We recognised that although Constructionline and PAS91:2013 are key elements in reducing duplication within our supply-chains, we needed a tailored approach to our material suppliers, manufacturers and consultants. Working with our peers to develop a solution means that rather than creating a discrete PQQ which could add to the administrative burden, we can set a standard that can be adopted across the industry.”
Rebecca Sperti, director at Constructionline said “We are looking forward to adopting the new question sets and are encouraged that whilst the question sets are tailored, they are still aligned to PAS91:2013. This supports our ongoing drive to create efficiencies within the construction industry through minimising the administration required during the procurement process. With this in mind, we are keen to encourage others throughout the industry to adopt the question sets and will be proactively raising this with key industry stakeholders, government bodies, other client groups and trade associations in order to further reduce the administration burden felt by suppliers.”
“The change will also allow us to refresh our question sets to incorporate questions on key industry challenges and initiatives including modern slavery, TfL’s Fleet Operators Recognition Scheme (FORs) and further questions around responsible sourcing.”
Constructionline aims to improve efficiencies across the UK construction industry and promote best practice, while making it easier for clients to build supply chains and suppliers to win work through its programme of events.
Copies of the question sets can be provided free of charge from Constructionline, email: constructionline.marketing@capita.co.uk