Demonstrating organisational capability with the Common Assessment Standard

The Construction Leadership Council (CLC) is delighted to welcome the latest version of the Common Assessment Standard, the industry-agreed pre-qualification standard developed by Build UK and endorsed by the CLC.

Version 4 has been streamlined following the withdrawal of PAS 91 and updated to include a new Building Safety section, ensuring it can be used to demonstrate that companies have the ‘organisational capability’ to fulfil their roles under the Building Safety Act.

Under the Act, anyone appointing individuals or organisations to undertake design and construction work has a duty to ensure they are competent, which is one of the priorities of the CLC’s Building Safety workstream.

The CLC is supporting the development of industry-led standards such as the Common Assessment Standard to support the delivery of safe and high-quality buildings for those who live and work in them.

Clients and contractors can demonstrate compliance with their duty to ensure competence by specifying that organisations in their supply chain are certified to the Common Assessment Standard, which requires the appropriate management policies, procedures and systems to be in place.

Version 4 has been welcomed by Philip White, HSE Director of Building Safety, who said: “The Building Safety Regulator is committed to encouraging industry to create a built environment where everyone is competent and takes responsibility to ensure buildings are of high quality and safe. This requires a change in culture across the industry and we are pleased that Build UK has worked with its members and stakeholders across the supply chain to update the Common Assessment Standard to include a specific section on building safety.”

There is a growing list of organisations across both the public and private sectors using the Common Assessment Standard, and in accordance with Procurement Policy Note 03/24 published earlier this year, central Government departments and wider public sector bodies should now use the Common Assessment Standard to pre‐qualify suppliers for construction works contracts. Suppliers will complete the new questions when they next go through the certification process with a Recognised Assessment Body.

Further information regarding the Common Assessment Standard can be found on the Build UK website.