MD Comment
Pre-qualification –
sense at last?
Last autumn, I was bemoaning the fact that 15 years after the publication by Sir Michael Latham of his seminal report, Constructing the Team, the industry was still bedevilled by a messy and expensive pre-qualification regime. I felt the time had arrived to get serious with the issue, to save Scottish clients and contractors an annual cost of some £10 million. I was certainly not a lone voice and it seems Government is now listening with their rather belated response to the Donaghy Report.
Rita Donaghy CBE, former chair of the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, was appointed in 2008 as the independent chair of an inquiry into the underlying causes of fatal accidents in the construction industry. Working closely with the HSE, she published her
report ‘One Death is too Many’ in 2009. The report was wide ranging and contained 28 recommendations for improving H&S in the construction industry. One of her key finding related to pre-qualification. Her advice to government was: “I recommend that there should be standard agreed bench- marks to test against the myriad of pre- qualification schemes so that sub-contractors do not have to acquire a host of pre-qualifications before participating in tenders for public and private work ... the Government should take the lead on this as a major client in public procurement”. In their response to the Report by
By Dave Forrester, head of services
REPRESENTATIONAL SERVICES
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June 2010 • CABLEtalk19
Rita Donaghy, published in 2010, the Government was unequivocal. They said “The Government accepts this recommendation”. Hallelujah! In the narrative supporting the response, Government goes into more detail about how it sees simplification being achieved. Firstly, by encouraging the work between HSE and H&S pre-qualification schemes through the Safety Schemes in Procurement Forum (SSIP). The aim of this is to achieve an agreed standard against which pre-qualification schemes can be measured consistently and to facilitate mutual recognition between schemes. Secondly, to support the work of SSIP,
Government is working with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to develop a Publicly Available Specification (PAS) covering construction pre- qualification. The PAS will provide a single model recommendation for construction pre-qualification, agreed with all major stakeholders. It will be designed to be used by both the public and private sector, to cover the complete supply chain. At the time of writing, the PAS is out for public consultation and SSIP is in its early development phase. Given the weight of Government support behind the initiatives, it is to be hoped that both reach a satisfactory conclusion sooner rather than later. Perhaps we are just about to see some sense being brought to the pre-qualification guddle?
Newell McGuiness
managing director, SELECT
Members’ Benefits
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