What is Pre-Qualification and the Common Assessment Standard

Pre-qualification in construction refers to the process of evaluating and selecting qualified bidders before the bidding process begins. The process involves reviewing the qualifications of potential bidders, such as their financial stability, experience, skills, and resources, to determine whether they meet the minimum requirements to bid on a particular project.  The process is based on companies completing and being audited against a Pre-qualification Questionnaire (PQQ).  

The Common Assessment Standard is the industry-recognised standard for the pre-qualification of suppliers in the construction sector. It was developed to reduce the need for companies to hold multiple accreditations  and is based on an industry agreed Standard Selection Questionnaire.   FIS has recently joined the working group that monitors the question set to feed in the views of our members.

Response is audited and suppliers are certified to the Common Assessment Standard once a year by a Recognised Assessment Body, and this is accepted by a growing list of Contractors and Clients who should longer specify a particular assessment body.  Over 22,000 companies now hold accreditation to the Common Assessment Standard.

Data Sharing

The growth of the Common Assessment Standard means clients should no longer be specifying particular PQQ providers.  Companies that have been certified against the Common Assessment Standard by a Recognised Assessment Body can share their key PQ data with other Recognised Assessment Bodies to increase their visibility amongst more Contractors and Clients. 

How does Data Sharing work?

Companies that have been certified against the Common Assessment Standard by a Recognised Assessment Body can share their key PQ data with other Recognised Assessment Bodies to increase their visibility amongst more Contractors and Clients. For each Recognised Assessment Body that a supplier wishes to share its data with, it will need to complete the relevant form as follows:

• Achilles – Complete the Data Request form.
• Constructionline – Complete the Data Portability Request form.
• CQMS – Complete the Data Request form.
• SCCS – Complete the Data Request form.
• Veriforce CHAS – Create or log into your ‘My CHAS’ account, select ‘CHAS Foundation’ if you don’t have an account already, then click ‘Register my accreditation’ in the ‘Common Assessment Standard Third Party’ section, and complete the Data Request form.

Empowering the Responsible No

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.