Why accreditations exist

Building and property work is an industry where the barriers to entry are low. Anyone can call themselves a contractor. The consequences of hiring the wrong one — uninsured workers on your site, incorrect risk management, failed work — can be severe and expensive.

Accreditation schemes exist to provide independent, third-party assessment of a contractor's health and safety competence, insurance levels, and workforce practices. They do not guarantee quality of work — but they establish a floor below which a contractor should not fall.

CHAS — Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme

CHAS is the UK's leading health and safety pre-qualification scheme. An accredited contractor has been assessed against the standards of PAS 91:2013 — the publicly available specification for construction pre-qualification. The assessment covers:

  • Health and safety policy and management system
  • Risk assessment and method statement competence
  • Employer's liability insurance (minimum £10 million)
  • Public liability insurance (minimum £5 million)
  • Accident and near-miss reporting procedures
  • Competency evidence for key personnel

CHAS accreditation is a requirement for most NHS Trust, local authority, and housing association contractor frameworks. If a contractor tells you they are "CHAS registered," ask to see the certificate — the accreditation must be current and annually renewed.

SafeContractor — Alcumus

SafeContractor is a health and safety accreditation scheme operated by Alcumus. It covers similar ground to CHAS — health and safety policy, insurance, risk management — and is accepted by a large number of private sector organisations as their pre-qualification standard.

SafeContractor approval is graded: a contractor may hold approval for specific categories of work (e.g., general building works, electrical, roofing) which are listed on their certificate. Check that the category matches the work you are procuring.

CITB — Construction Industry Training Board

CITB is not a health and safety accreditation — it is a workforce development and training levy body. Contractors registered with CITB pay a levy on their payroll and in return have access to training grants, apprenticeship support, and CSCS card scheme administration.

CITB registration signals that a contractor is a genuine employer paying into the industry training system — not a cash-in-hand operation. It is a useful indicator of legitimacy, particularly for larger contractors with employed teams.

What accreditations don't cover

None of these schemes assess the quality of finished work. A CHAS-accredited contractor is a contractor who has met health and safety and insurance thresholds. Whether their brickwork is good, their programme is realistic, or their site management is competent — these are separate questions.

References, project track record, and a clear, itemised written quotation remain the most reliable indicators of how a contractor will perform on your job.

Think of accreditations as the driving licence. It tells you the contractor passed a minimum standard test. It doesn't tell you how they drive.