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Easier procurement practice to save construction industry £250 million a year
A simpler way of pre-qualifying for construction contracts is to be introduced which will save the industry millions, Business Minister Mark Prisk announced today.
Currently businesses may have to answer a different set of questions every time they bid for new government contracts. From today, a standard prequalification questionnaire is available as a free download, streamlining this process, saving both time and money for construction firms.
Estimates by the National Specialist Contractors Council put the cost to the industry and its clients of wasteful prequalification processes at £250 million annually.
The Publically Available Specification (PAS 91) has been developed by the British Standards Institution in partnership with the Department for Business.
Business Minister Mark Prisk said:
“Ensuring that public sector procurement practices are not wasteful has always been important but the current economic climate brings that into even sharper focus.
“Over the next decade the new PAS 91 could save the construction industry billions of pounds.
“This is a good example of how Government can work with key suppliers to develop an approach which meets the needs of both the public sector clients and the private sector suppliers.”
Bill Wright, Managing Director of W. Wright Electrical Ltd said:
"As a contractor who regularly fills out these questionnaires, I fully support the publication of PAS 91 and I am pleased to see that it is gaining wide support across the industry. What matters now is that clients and major contractors adopt, or even when they need more information, build upon this important document. This will help to minimise costly and unnecessary paperwork and place the focus where it should be - on assessing contractor's capabilities".
PAS 91 has been developed with direct involvement of the Electrical Contractors Association, the Specialist Engineering Contractors Group, the National Federation of Builders, the Federation of Master Builders and the Civil Engineering Contractors Association who were all on the Steering Group.
PAS 91 is available as a free download on the BIS and BSI websites:
