From 6 April, companies with 10 or more employees who cannot work from home will be able to order home test kits for their employees where it is not possible to set up a testing site in the workplace.
The deadline to register for workplace testing has been extended until Monday 12 April 2021. Build UK has produced a useful guide summarising the process.
Access all the latest Covid-19 updates in our Covid Hub.
Major contractors now adopting the Common Assessment Standard
Build UK has announced that the new industry-wide pre-qualification (PQ) system is now fully up and running, simplifying a complex system for the benefit of everyone in the construction sector. The rollout of the Common Assessment Standard will significantly reduce the duplication of time, effort and resources that are costing the sector up to £1 billion a year.
Major contractors and clients – including Balfour Beatty, Costain, HS2, Mace, Multiplex and Skanska – have all adopted the Common Assessment Standard meaning that members of their supply chains will need to obtain just one certification to tender for work with them. This follows the recent implementation of a new data sharing solution, which enables contractors and clients to obtain key PQ data from any one of three Recognised Assessment Bodies: Achilles, CHAS or Constructionline.
The Common Assessment Standard is an industry-agreed question set with two levels of certification – desktop and site-based – and companies can apply to any Recognised Assessment Body to get the appropriate level dependent upon their trade, size and requirements of their clients.
Created by Build UK with the support of CECA, the Common Assessment Standard is endorsed by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), which is actively seeking its adoption throughout Government construction procurement, including the Construction Playbook.
Jo Fautley, Deputy Chief Executive of Build UK, said: “We’re delighted that the new system is now fully up and running and already being used by major contractors and clients. It’s been a collaborative effort, involving companies across the whole sector, and the new system is a huge step towards more efficient working, which is more important than ever in the current challenging economic climate.”
Neil Mant, Chair of the Interim Cross Industry Body, which has overseen the development of the new system, said: “The new PQ system is a huge step forward for construction. With a single Common Assessment Standard and data sharing now in place, we have not only eliminated a huge amount of costly duplication of effort but also raised the bar in assessing the competence of the supply chain. Supply chain companies will need certification from only one of the three Recognised Assessment Bodies, and contractors can continue to deal with the body they have an existing relationship with.”
Andy Mitchell, Chair of the CLC, said: “The CLC is delighted to endorse the Common Assessment Standard which is set to transform the construction PQ process. It is a real and practical way of reducing bureaucracy and improving quality in the industry and it comes at just the right time. Companies will be able to demonstrate that they meet an agreed industry standard, and clients and contractors will be able to rely on the certification. The CLC will be encouraging the adoption of the Common Assessment Standard throughout public and private sector procurement.”
The Government has confirmed that anyone who gets a positive result from a lateral flow device (LFD) test undertaken at home should get a PCR test to confirm the result. However, in the event of a positive result from an LFD test undertaken at a test site, a follow up PCR test is not required and the individual and anyone they live with must self‐isolate from 10 days from the date of the test.
Build UK has published a guide to the Government’s workplace testing programme, which provides an overview of the LFD testing process and the steps required to set up a test site. Members interested in offering workplace testing must register via the Government’s online portal by next Wednesday 31 March and tests will then be provided free of charge until the end of June.
The Written Ministerial Statement by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick permitting extended site working hours has been extended until 30 September 2021. The statement makes it clear that local planning authorities in England should not refuse requests to extend working hours on construction sites up to 9pm, Monday to Saturday, without very compelling reasons. In some cases, such as in areas without residential properties, 24‐hour working may be justified.
Requests should be made to the local planning authority which should aim to issue a decision within 10 working days, and the Government has published FAQs with further information.
To support ongoing engagement with the Home Office and the wider sector FIS is tracking the impact of changes to the labour market.
FIS has repeatedly raised concerns that interior systems installers (dryliners, ceiling fixers, partitions installers etc) have not been included as an eligible occupation for the skilled worker route in the new UK Points Based Immigration System and that no construction workers have been included on the shortage occupation list. This omission means that from the 1st July, if an EU worker (excluding Ireland) has not applied to work in the UK through the Settlement Scheme, they will not be eligible to work.
Across the sector, at the start of 2020, it is estimated that the workforce relied on some 40% of trade operatives from the EU. As a consequence of these changes, the annual recruitment target for UK national has doubled, putting huge strain on the training infrastructure (particularly against the background of COVID-19) and for every 5% of EU workers that opt not to return to work in the UK or continue working in the the UK beyond the 1st July we see this target double again.
With reports of Labour Shortages already as things start to pick up in 2021, we are calling on companies in the sector to complete our short market survey.
CLC has set out its mid-term strategy, which provides more detail on:
In particular, the strategy sets out one year and three year plans against our priority themes, focused particularly on Building Safety and the Race to Net Zero Carbon.
A summary of outline work plans for the CLC’s workstreams and highlights of recent industry engagement is also given in the strategy.
The strategy can be found here.
