Safety certification problems lose nearly 40% of subbies work

Almost 40% of subcontractors are losing work and damaging their reputation over health and safety issues, warranty provider the NHBC has warned.

The news has prompted the NHBC to launch its own health and safety support service.

Existing CDM Regulations state that contractors and subcontractors must be able to demonstrate competence on every new tender to ensure health and safety will be managed effectively. This includes a need to have a health and safety policy in place to ensure employees are appropriately trained.

But the NHBC claims self-certification is eating up time and money, and remains an issue which even competent subcontractors are reportedly hesitant about, which can result in them losing bids for work.

The council said it had subsequently designed SafeMark - a third party pre-qualification assessment scheme aimed at helping the house building industry. It has been designed to save time, involving an initial assessment, and remaining valid for a year.

Commenting on the new scheme, health and safety manager at the NHBC Simon Mantle said: “It is vital that subcontractors are fully prepared for all health and safety issues and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is having a real push on competence to reflect this.”

“We know from our research that many subcontractors across the industry are competent - it's just a question of proving it. For some, and particularly smaller firms, the administration involved with this is simply not practical.”

SafeMark is accredited to the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) standard.