Industry body Build UK has released an updated version of the Common Assessment Standard (CAS), including new questions on firms’ building-safety capabilities.
The CAS is an industry-agreed set of questions and corresponding assessment standards that can pre-qualify construction suppliers for projects.
The updated version (V4) contains a new Building Safety section, ensuring that the CAS can be used to demonstrate that companies have the ‘organisational capability’ to fulfil their roles under the Building Safety Act.
The law requires anyone appointing individuals or organisations to carry out design or construction work to ensure that they are competent.
Clients and contractors will now be able to demonstrate compliance with this duty by specifying that organisations in their supply chain are certified to the CAS, which requires appropriate management policies, procedures and systems to be in place.
Build UK deputy chief executive Jo Fautley said: “By establishing the Common Assessment Standard, we have brought the whole sector together to transform the construction pre-qualification process, and everyone can play their part in improving efficiency, reducing cost and raising standards by using it.”
The Construction Leadership Council endorsed the CAS in 2021. And in recent months it has been taken up by an increasing number of companies – “a critical mass”, according to Build UK.
These companies, including Costain, Kier and Sisk, are certified annually by a recognised assessment body.
More than 22,500 suppliers have been certified against the CAS by the five recognised assessment bodies.
In May 2023, public sector bodies were enabled to use the CAS to pre-qualify their supply chains by the publication of Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 03/23. Its use for public sector work has been confirmed by PPN 03/24, issued by the Cabinet Office.
Scape group procurement director John Simons said: “[The CAS] has standardised the selection process for the supply chain, as only one annual assessment is required to gain access to valuable opportunities, and the new streamlined version 4 makes that process even simpler for companies of all sizes.”
Version 4 was streamlined following the withdrawal last year of PAS 91 – a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire developed by the British Standards Institute, introduced in 2010.
