How is the scaffold levy spent?

Scaffolding contractors are putting pressure on the Construction Industry Training Board to provide a more detailed analysis on how much levy is raised from their sector and a full breakdown of how the money is spent.

The CITB scaffolding subcommittee has asked for details of grant, training costs and levy income associated with the sector. Industry leaders are seething over the board's failure to provide this information more than five months after it was first formally requested.

Contractors say such information is essential as it forms the basis for the division of training resources. A survey by the National Association of Scaffolding Contractors suggests that their members are contributing at least œ600,000 in levy to the board.

The call for greater CITB accountability follows a period of strained relations between the scaffolding firms and the training board. Contractors have been bitterly critical of the board's bureaucracy.

The board says that the delay in providing the analysis is due to the fact that the relevant information has to be extracted manually from the overall accounts.