Contracting authorities in the public sector have a new way to assess the safety and effectiveness of their supply chains, according to CHAS.
Contractors looking to win public sector contracts now need to show compliance with a broader range of standards as covered in the Common Assessment Standard (CHAS Elite) and PAS 91 (CHAS Advanced) accreditations.
This is in addition to the SSIP and health and safety requirements which previously stood.
The changes for best practice came into effect on April 1 as part of Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 03/23. They update the Selection Questionnaire and replaces PPN 08/16.
CHAS Managing Director Ian McKinnon said: “The updates to Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 08/16 are a clear signal of the government’s commitment to responsible public procurement and a further incentive for contractors to strive for greater levels of compliance.
“We are proud of the huge number of CHAS Contractors already accredited to the Common Assessment Standard (CHAS Elite) and PAS 91 (CHAS Advanced) and of the many more who are currently working with CHAS towards reaching these standards.
“At CHAS, we believe the industry must work together to raise levels of supply chain risk management, and as ever, we are ready to support organisations looking to source responsible suppliers via our free CHAS Client portal.”
Launched in 2019, the Common Assessment Standard (CHAS Elite) is a comprehensive industry-approved questionnaire that has quickly become the elite standard for prequalification in construction procurement.
It allows organisations to assess the capability of their suppliers across 13 compliance topics, including: Anti-Bribery and Corruption, Building Information Modelling (BIM), Data Protection, Equality & Diversity, Financial Information, Modern Slavery and Quality, Corporate Social Responsibility, Information Management and Information Security.
Meanwhile, PAS 91 (CHAS Advanced) is a standardised prequalification questionnaire (PQQ) developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI), that goes beyond SSIP to cover some of the topics included in the Common Assessment Standard.
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