Constructionline Gold Guide
Constructionline Gold & CAS V5 Guide for UK Contractors
Constructionline Gold is the desktop-assessed route to the Build UK Common Assessment Standard (CAS). For a trade contractor trying to get through a Tier 1 supply-chain gate, it is not simply a badge: the assessment tests whether the company can evidence the financial, governance, health and safety, environmental, quality, Building Safety, FIR, information security and information-management controls behind its tender answers.
On this page
- What Constructionline Gold actually proves
- Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum compared
- PAS 91, PPN 03/24 & public procurement
- CAS V5: Building Safety live assessment
- The 10 sections of CAS V5
- The SSIP trap: CHAS is not full CAS
- Five common evidence rejection patterns
- What to have ready before submitting
- Gold and buyer-specific checks
- Frequently asked questions
What Constructionline Gold actually proves
Gold is aimed at organisations that need a verified desktop Common Assessment Standard position. The assessor is not looking only for completed portal answers. They are looking for supporting evidence that is current, attributable to the legal entity being assessed and appropriate to the work categories and dutyholder roles selected in the application.
That distinction matters for groundworkers, M&E contractors, dryliners, steelwork contractors, joinery firms and demolition specialists. A business may be technically strong on site and still be held at pre-construction stage because its evidence pack has generic policies, expired approvals, the wrong CDM scope or no documented route from Director policy to operative-level implementation.
Build UK CAS Alignment
Gold is Constructionline's recognised desktop route for demonstrating the Common Assessment Standard rather than a legacy PAS 91 claim.
Desktop Evidence Verification
Policies, certificates, procedures, accounts and operational examples must stand up to assessor scrutiny rather than merely exist in a company folder.
Supply-Chain Pre-Qualification
Where a contractor or client uses CAS, Gold can remove repeated core PQQ work, although buyer-specific commercial and project checks can still sit on top.
Legal-Entity Attribution
Every upload is audited directly against the legal entity being assessed, stopping issues where certificates name old or parent firms.
Constructionline Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum
The membership levels are often described as if they were four grades of the same audit. They are not. For procurement teams, the critical dividing line is that Gold is the desktop CAS certification route, while Platinum adds site-based verification.
| Level | What it covers in practice | CAS position | Procurement implication |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Entry-level verified company information with an SSIP health and safety route included in the membership. | Not full desktop CAS certification. | Useful for basic supplier visibility and lower-level pre-qualification, but insufficient where the buyer specifies full CAS. |
| Silver | Broader verification including corporate and professional standing. It reflects the industry's older PAS 91-era pre-qualification structure, but PAS 91 itself is withdrawn. | Not the recognised full desktop CAS level. | Can satisfy buyers asking for Silver, but should not be presented as current PAS 91 certification or as Gold-level CAS. |
| Gold | Full desktop assessment against the applicable Common Assessment Standard requirements, including Building Safety requirements where relevant. | Desktop CAS. | The key level where a Tier 1 or client requires recognised desktop CAS pre-qualification. |
| Platinum | Gold-level assessment plus a one-day premises or site-based audit. | Site-based CAS. | Used where the procurement route requires evidence that documented systems are being implemented in practice. |
Do not write “PAS 91 compliant” into a 2026 PQQ response as though PAS 91 remains the live benchmark. BSI withdrew PAS 91 in 2023. The Common Assessment Standard is the relevant industry framework for buyers using the Build UK route.
PAS 91, PPN 03/24 and public-sector procurement
PPN 03/24 is important because, under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 regime, it removed the old PAS 91 position from the standard selection approach and supported use of the Common Assessment Standard for works pre-qualification.
Procurement law moved on again when the Procurement Act 2023 regime came into force on 24 February 2025. For new procurements under that regime, contracting authorities use the current supplier-information and conditions-of-participation framework. Industry pre-qualification systems such as CAS can still be used for works where the requirements are relevant and proportionate.
In practical terms, a subcontractor tendering into public-sector frameworks can encounter both worlds at once: a legacy framework or call-off governed by the earlier regime, and a new opportunity governed by the Procurement Act. The procurement documents and buyer instructions control; “we have always answered the PAS 91 question this way” is no longer a safe compliance position.
CAS V5: Building Safety is now a live assessment issue
In CAS V5, Building Safety is Section 7. The questions that were introduced to address organisational capability under the post-Building Safety Act regime moved into mandatory assessment for relevant organisations carrying out design or building work.
That is not limited to the company at the top of the contract. Under the Building Regulations dutyholder regime, an organisation can be a Client, Designer, Principal Designer, Contractor or Principal Contractor depending on the work it undertakes and the appointment made. A trade subcontractor carrying out building work can therefore have Contractor duties even when it is several tiers down the commercial chain.
Assessors need more than a policy headed “Building Safety Act 2022”. They are looking for evidence of organisational capability: how competent people are selected, how skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours are checked, how subcontractor competence is verified, how supervision is controlled and how dutyholders cooperate, communicate and escalate safety-critical information.
Failing CAS V5 Section 7 on Building Safety Act compliance? Explore our Constructionline Gold Consultancy Proccess for a structured competence and organisational-capability dossier.
Dutyholder Role Mapping
The selected CAS role must reflect what the organisation actually undertakes as Designer, Contractor, Principal Designer or Principal Contractor.
Competence Verification
Training cards alone do not establish organisational capability. The business needs a repeatable method for appointing, checking, supervising and reviewing competent people and subcontractors.
The 10 sections of CAS V5
Old PQQ templates can cause avoidable errors here. In the live V5 structure, Building Safety is Section 7 and Section 9 is Information Security. “Business ethics” is not a separate V5 section; relevant anti-bribery, fraud, exclusion and governance evidence sits mainly within Corporate and Professional Standing.
| Section | CAS V5 heading | What assessors are testing | Typical evidence pressure point |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Identity | Correct legal entity, trading details, ownership, work categories, organisational profile and scope. | Portal data not matching Companies House-style legal identity, certificates or policy names. |
| 2 | Financial | Financial standing, accounts and required insurance information. | Out-of-date accounts, inadequate cover or policy documents issued to the wrong entity. |
| 3 | Corporate & Professional Standing | Exclusion grounds, professional conduct, bribery, fraud, Modern Slavery, whistleblowing and associated governance. | Generic policies with no Director approval, ownership or evidence that controls are implemented. |
| 4 | Health & Safety | H&S arrangements and CDM capability, with recognised SSIP or management-system exemptions applied where valid. | Wrong SSIP scope, generic RAMS, weak COSHH evidence or failure to reflect the dutyholder role actually undertaken. |
| 5 | Environmental | Environmental policy, competent advice, aspects and impacts, operational controls and relevant environmental licences or registrations. | A policy exists but there is no evidence of site controls, waste arrangements, objectives or implementation. |
| 6 | Quality | Quality-management arrangements, responsibilities, non-conformance, subcontractor controls and continuous improvement. | A one-page quality statement with no procedure for inspection, defects, NCRs or supplier performance. |
| 7 | Building Safety | Organisational capability, dutyholder competence, cooperation, supervision and controls arising from the Building Safety regulatory regime. | No documented competence framework, no subcontractor competence verification or no evidence linking roles to actual building work. |
| 8 | Fairness, Inclusion & Respect (FIR) | Equality, fairness, inclusion, respectful behaviour and how those expectations are communicated. | Policy supplied, but no induction, briefing, training or workforce-communication trail. |
| 9 | Information Security | Cyber security, data protection, incident controls and information-security arrangements. | Policy wording is detached from actual access controls, backups, incident reporting or supply-chain risk. |
| 10 | Information Management (IM) | Structured project information-management capability, including ISO 19650-related arrangements where applicable. | Claiming BIM or information-management capability without defined responsibilities, procedures or project evidence. |
Current-standard watch: V5 remains the live question set for this guide, but Build UK has announced Version 6 for 1 November 2026. Firms maintaining long-lived tender packs should control the question-set version rather than reusing a static evidence index indefinitely.
The SSIP trap: CHAS or SafeContractor is not full CAS
SSIP Deem to Satisfy (DtS) is designed to stop a contractor being repeatedly assessed against the same core health and safety criteria by different SSIP member schemes. Where a current certificate is recognised and its dutyholder scope is correct, it can support the relevant Health & Safety assessment route.
It does not turn an SSIP certificate into Constructionline Gold. It does not clear the other nine CAS section headings. Financial, Corporate and Professional Standing, Environment, Quality, Building Safety, FIR, Information Security and Information Management still have to be dealt with as applicable, with exemptions or advisory treatment applied only where the standard allows them.
A valid SSIP certificate can prevent duplicated H&S assessment. It does not prevent a Gold submission being rejected because the Building Safety competence framework, environmental controls, quality arrangements or governance evidence is missing.
Five common Constructionline Gold evidence rejection patterns
Most failed evidence uploads are not caused by exotic legal points. They come from documents that do not prove what the portal answer says they prove.
- Outdated or unsigned Director-controlled policies: Carrying old review dates, blank signatures, or signatories no longer at Companies House. Constructionline expects policies to be Director-approved and current within 12 months.
- Generic RAMS instead of site-specific examples: Uploading template packs without real project hazards, sequencing, plant-people interfaces, or emergency arrangements. Assessors commonly request two distinct project-specific RAMS.
- SDS sheets uploaded instead of COSHH assessments: Manufacturer Safety Data Sheets describe the substance, not how operatives use it. Assessors require completed task assessments evaluating exposure, ventilation, PPE, and first aid.
- FIR policy with no communication trail: Supplying a signed Equality or FIR statement without records showing that the workforce received or understood it (such as toolbox talk logs or induction checklists).
- Environmental arrangements with no waste-control evidence: Claiming environmental management without waste transfer notes, carrier licences, or aspects and impacts registers.
What to have ready before pressing Submit
Treat Gold like a controlled tender return. Build one indexed evidence pack against the CAS questions before the assessor starts sending piecemeal actions back through the portal.
Governance & Finance
- Correct legal entity matching Companies House
- Current financial accounts and insurance schedules
- Director-approved policies dated within 12 months
- Documented subcontractor vetting and monitoring
Safety & Operations
- Valid SSIP certificate matching CDM dutyholder scope
- Two recent site-specific project RAMS examples
- Completed, task-specific COSHH risk assessments
- Building Safety Act 2022 organisational capability pack
Facing an urgent Tier 1 tender deadline? Speak to our compliance team for fast-track portal management and a structured review of the evidence holding up your submission.
Gold does not remove buyer-specific checks
Contractors including Balfour Beatty, Kier and Wates are among organisations associated with use of the Common Assessment Standard. That is exactly why a clean CAS position matters when a subcontract package is moving through supply-chain onboarding.
But a Gold certificate is not a universal pass into every Tier 1 portal. Individual businesses and business units can impose their own financial thresholds, work-category rules, insurances, geographic requirements, project experience, ESG questions, sanctions checks or separate onboarding systems. Morgan Sindall business units, for example, may operate buyer-specific pre-qualification arrangements in addition to whatever third-party accreditations a supplier holds.
Procurement teams should therefore separate CAS compliance from buyer acceptance. Gold can solve the first where CAS is specified; it does not contractually guarantee the second.
Constructionline Gold & CAS V5 FAQs
Is Constructionline Gold the same as the Common Assessment Standard?
Constructionline Gold is Constructionline's recognised desktop certification route for the Build UK Common Assessment Standard. Platinum adds site-based auditing. A buyer can still apply project-specific or commercial checks.
Does CHAS or SafeContractor mean we already meet Gold?
No. A valid SSIP certificate may support a Deem to Satisfy route for relevant H&S criteria where the scope is correct. It is not full CAS certification and does not clear the remainder of the CAS evidence requirements.
Which CAS V5 section covers Building Safety?
Section 7. It deals with organisational capability and competence arrangements relevant to the Building Safety regulatory regime. Older summaries that describe Building Safety as Section 5 do not reflect the V5 section order.
Is PAS 91 still current?
No. PAS 91 was withdrawn in 2023. Do not rely on a legacy PAS 91 label as a substitute for the evidence required by the current Common Assessment Standard.
Does Constructionline Gold guarantee Tier 1 approval?
No. It can satisfy the recognised desktop CAS requirement where the buyer uses that route, but buyers remain free to apply additional financial, insurance, experience, project and commercial requirements.
Need the evidence pack built, not another checklist?
ESC Support can review the current portal position, map the missing CAS evidence, prepare trade-specific documents and manage assessor actions through the Constructionline workflow.