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Buildsafe NI

Buildsafe NI was established in 2003 as a five-year safety initiative for the construction industry run under the auspices of the Construction Industry Forum Northern Ireland. It was set against the background of 44 deaths and over 500 severely injured in the previous 10 years. Buildsafe NI brought together the public sector client, the industry, the trade unions and the Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland as partnering groups and was taken forward in the context of the existing legal obligations and requirements.

Buildsafe-NI Action Plan 2011

The Buildsafe-NI Action Plan 2011 replaces all previous Government Construction Action Plans and associated Guidance.

The 2011 Action Plan includes:

Third Party Certification

Action 2 (a) of the Buildsafe-NI Action Plan has a requirement that all Contractors seeking to tender for public sector works contracts shall have a health and safety management system certified by a 3rd party.

Government Construction Clients shall recognise 3rd party certification of a health and safety management system, provided:

  • It is based upon ILO OSH 2001; BSI’s OHSAS 18001 and 18002; BS 18004; HSG 65 or equivalent;
  • It is construction focused and incorporates site inspections.
  • The 3rd party certification body is accredited by a National Accreditation Service and /or is recognised by a professional health and safety body or institution as having the knowledge and skill to undertake construction focused 3rd party health and safety audits.

The Centres of Procurement Expertise (CoPEs) have assessed a number of 3rd party health and safety certification scheme providers. Those, which the CoPEs are aware of, and which are deemed to meet the above requirements are listed below.

3rd Party Health & Safety Certification Scheme Provider

 Scheme Name /Standard

BM Trada Certification Ltd

OHSAS 18001

BM Trada Certification Ltd / CASEC Northern Ireland

Worksafe /OHSAS18001

British Standards Institution (BSI)

OHSAS 18001

Construction Federation Services Ltd (Safe-T-Cert)

Safe- T-Cert  ILO OSH 2001

CQS (Certified Quality Systems) Ltd

OHSAS 18001

EQA (Ireland) Ltd

OHSAS 18001

IMSM Limited

OHSAS 18001

Insight Certification Limited

Trading as: National Security Inspectorate, Ensign Certification Services and CerticCS (NSI)

OHSAS 18001

ISOQAR

OHSAS 18001

ISO Management Services Ltd

Trading as: IMS International

OHSAS 18001

KE ISO Consultancy

OHSAS18001

Moody International Certification Ltd

OHSAS18001

National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI)

OHSAS18001

NQA

OHSAS 18001

Ocean Certification Ltd

OHSAS 18001

Registrar of Standards (Holdings) Ltd

Trading as: United Registrar of Systems Ltd (URS)

OHSAS 18001

SGS United Kingdom Ltd

OHSAS 18001

The Audit People

OHSAS 18001

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (ROSPA)

Quality Safety Audit (QSA)

Where a contractor is submitting a PQQ and his 3rd party health and safety certification provider is listed above no action is required. Where this is not the case the contractor must forward an ‘Assessment of Organisations Providing 3rd Party Health & Safety Management System’ questionnaire to his 3rd party health and safety certification provider for completion.

The 3rd party certification provider shall return the completed questionnaire to the contractor who shall submit it as part of the PQQP. Failure to return the completed questionnaire with the PQQP submission will result in the submission being rejected.

A number of the 3rd party health and safety certification scheme providers listed above are also members of the Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) Forum. These may be checked on the SSIP webpage - http://www.ssip.org.uk/

3rd Party Health & Safety Certification – Subcontractors

Action 2(b) of the Buildsafe-NI Action Plan commits Government Construction Clients to introduce, by December 2011, a requirement in new contracts for the main contractor’s first tier subcontractors, with 10 or more employees, to have a health and safety management system certified by a 3rd party.

The Action Plan was approved by the Construction Industry Forum for Northern Ireland which represents the construction industry and Government Construction Clients.

The potential outworking of this is that contracts meeting this requirement are unlikely to be awarded before April 2012.

Subcontractors interested in working on government contracts should be aware of this change and should take steps to obtain the necessary certification.

Grant Eligibility

On initial certification of a recognised 3rd party management system CITB-ConstructionSkills NI can award a grant payment of £250. For further information contact CITB Training Operations Support Team on 028 9082 5466. Further details can be found on page 8 of the 2011/2012 Grants Booklet.

Health & Safety Report Template

Action Point 4 (b) of the Government Construction Clients Buildsafe NI Action Plan requires the Principal Contractor to report regularly on health and safety matters. To ensure uniformity of reporting the Principal Contractor shall be required to use the Buildsafe - Contractors Health and Safety Report Template to report at each site meeting on all CDM “notifiable” projects.

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