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Achilles selected to assess new common pre-qualification standard for UK construction market

Achilles selected to assess new common pre-qualification standard for UK construction market

10 Apr 2019

After working with Build UK to establish a new pre-qualification system as an industry standard, Achilles has been selected as one of the vendors responsible for assuring and validating the entire UK construction industry. Achilles has been providing pre-qualification to UK construction companies for 12 years and strives to promote best practice across the industry.

Build UK and Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) are commencing the implementation phase of their new pre-qualification system in April 2019. Putting in place an industry standard for the UK construction industry will improve efficiency and reduce costs for operators. The sector has always suffered from extremely thin margins, but a common source of inefficiencies is poor collaboration across the value creation process.

Creating an industry standard solves a number of important problems for the UK construction market and is a significant step forward for the sector. The existing pre-qualification system is complex, repetitive and actively works to impede productivity in the sector. With over 18,000 specialist contractors producing up to two million pieces of paperwork across a multitude of diverse schemes each year, standardising pre-qualification will lead to cost and time savings across the sector.

Lee Brunsden, Construction Sector Lead at Achilles, commented, “We have been working with Build UK on this project for some time now, and are pleased to be part of this important initiative to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and ease the administrative burden on suppliers.

“As one of the recognised assessment bodies, we will continue to work towards our key goals of developing and embedding best practice in the construction industry. Allowing companies to be certified just once, by one of the recognised assessment bodies, is a welcome development.

“This is an important moment for the UK construction industry. A collaborative approach across the industry will help to raise standards and improve compliance in supply chains. We’re excited about partnering with the market and our customers to offer an affordable and efficient pre-qualification process.”

The Common Assessment Standard is now available for recognised assessment and companies to start using. Both of the Achilles BuildingConfidence communities will include the new standard, providing a comprehensive low to high risk assessment solution.The initial implementation phase is expected to last up to summer 2019.


For further information, please contact:

Rebecca Bantoft,- Head of Corporate Communications – Achilles Information 07931 374627 / rebecca.bantoft@achilles.com

About Achilles:

  • Achilles Information is the global leader and partner of choice for supply chain risk and performance management.
  • Through supplier pre-qualification programmes, industry audits and risk management, Achilles has been a pivotal link between buyers and suppliers for nearly 30 years, providing the data and perspective to give customers unparalleled levels of insight into the businesses they work with.
  • Working in partnership with customers, Achilles supports supply chains that perform flawlessly and meet critical humanitarian and environmental standards.
  • Achilles has offices across the world, with a network of over 800 buyers and 500,000 suppliers across industrial, infrastructure and natural resources sector

About the Common Assessment Standard:

The Common Assessment Standard builds on the PAS 91 question set with additional industry-agreed questions and standards to provide a comprehensive assessment of the supply chain at the first stage of PQ. Specific areas covered by the Common Assessment Standard are: Identity, Financial, Corporate & Professional Standing, Health and Safety, Environmental, Quality, Equality, Corporate Social Responsibility, Information Security, BIM

Further detail on the PQ system is available on the Build UK website: www.builduk.org/prequalification.

Build UK is the leading representative organisation for the UK construction industry. By bringing together Clients, Contractors, Trade Associations representing a wide range of Specialist Contractors, and other organisations committed to industry collaboration, Build UK represents in excess of 40% of UK construction.

The Civil Engineering Contractors Association (CECA) is the representative body for companies who work day-to-day to deliver, upgrade, and maintain the country’s infrastructure.

The Construction Sector Deal, which sets out an ambitious partnership between industry and Government to transform the sector’s productivity, commits to ‘remov[ing] bureaucracy from the procurement process by developing a standardised cross-industry pre-qualification process and Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) that can be adopted across the public and private sectors’.

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