Public bids to meet health requirements

Contractors could soon be required to prove they are managing occupational health sufficiently across their construction sites if they are to bid for government contracts.

Speaking to CJ, Constructing Better Health (CBH) chairman Trevor Walker said the public sector was likely to take the lead in insisting on high quality occupational health standards in order to bid for public sector work.

He added: "The Office of Government Commerce has already added the need for contractors to have CSCS, or an equivalent standard, as part of its minimum standards when bidding for government contracts.

"I believe that in the future we will see the CBH system dealing with health in a similar way to safety, probably as part of the minimum standard. This will then be followed by other clients as they start to see the benefits.