Construction Rant

The world economy is in meltdown; job cuts are on the rise; and the construction industry is facing its worst downturn in more than 20 years.

And yet, the UK construction industry continues to waste more than £250 million each year on one of the most hated chores in the sector; the repetitive and soul-destroying completion of pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQ's).

It is estimated that around 5,000 contractors are currently collecting and attempting to maintain current information on around 180,000 subcontractors and suppliers. That equates to more than two million paper PQQ's per year. Worse still, around 85 percent of the questions asked are not contract or job specific.

Setting aside the environmental impact of this mass paper-shuffling exercise, that is eight million man hours spent on a repetitive process with no commercial or economic benefit.

As a trade organisation, The Builders' Conference firmly believes that this level of repetition and wastage simply cannot be allowed to continue.

In line with the recommendations of the Government-sponsored Latham Report published in 1994, we are urging our members and other companies within and allied to the construction industry to adopt a single, centralised database that is accessible to all interested parties.

The Builders' Conference is, therefore, calling upon the construction sector to embrace The Builder's Profile, a centralised and online alternative to PQQ's and to put an end to this appalling waste of human resources once and for all.

To state your objection to the current PQQ system, please register your objection at our website.

Neil Edwards
Chief Executive
The Builders' Conference