Crown Commercial Service has confirmed that suppliers applying to its new Construction Works and Associated Services Framework, worth up to £80 billion, must be certified to the Common Assessment Standard developed by Build UK. The framework will run from October 2026 until October 2034, and the contract notice is now available.
With a growing list of organisations across both the public and private sectors using the Common Assessment Standard, members of the supply chain only need to obtain certification once from any of the Recognised Assessment Bodies. Companies keen to see a reduction in the bureaucracy of pre‐qualification should review the different certifications they hold to see if they have the Common Assessment Standard from more than one Recognised Assessment Body and whether that is required for any reason.
Help eliminate waste in Duplication of Pre Qualification Questionnaires
As part of the FIS Responsible No Campaign, FIS is also looking at the current failure for wholesale adoption of the Common Assessment Standard.
FIS is encouraging members to advertise their support for the Common Assessment Standard and adopt a Responsible No when they are confronted with behaviours and processes that undermine productivity, safety or responsible commercial practice. To this end we are encouraging members to use a Responsible No when asked to complete multiple PQQs. We accept that this is difficult in a commercial tender situation and time is often too tight, but we have prepared a short email that we suggest our members send to their client to help raise awareness of the efficiencies that the Common Assessment Standard brings. This email template is available here Common Assessment Standard Template Email.
If companies are failing to adopt the Common Assessment Standard, please email info@thefis.org and we will follow-up independently (all information will be treated in the strictest confidence ensuring no member is named or disadvantaged in any way by our follow-up).