Health and Safety at Work - 4. Short listing Subcontractors for Tender
Health and safety factors are taken into account when judging whether to
invite a subcontractor to tender.
In preparing the tender list, potential subcontractors will only be included
if they show competence in the management of health and safety matters.
Candidates may be subjected to a pre-tender assessment to ensure that
competitiveness in terms of price will not be achieved at the expense of health
and safety.
A subcontractor with the correct management attitude should be willing to
provide information on past performance, policies and practical proposals for
the management of health and safety during a project.
Those subcontractors required by law to prepare a written safety policy
should give a copy to Raitt Management at the earliest opportunity. This will
provide evidence of management attitude. Laudable statements are not enough,
they should be supported by detailed, well prepared arrangements. The policy
should be a working document with provisions for monitoring its effectiveness
and therefore subject to amendment and updating as appropriate. A director or
partner should be named as having the final responsibility for health and safety
and should sign and date it.
The use which subcontractors make of accident information in preventing
accidents may also indicate a willingness to monitor and improve health and
safety performance.
Subcontractors should be able to show that they can call upon professional
health and safety advisers either internally or externally. They should also
show that they are prepared to allocate resources for safety supervision, joint
consultation, training and safety equipment in relation to the size and nature
of the project.
Raitt Management may look at past performance of a subcontractor to see
whether he should be short listed. Subcontractors should prepare for reasonable
questions being asked by Raitt Management about past performance. Factors which
might be taken into account when assessing past performance include serious
accidents and/or dangerous occurrences, enforcement action by HSE (i.e.
prosecutions and enforcement notices), and justified complaints about health and
safety matters both from within the site, through safety representatives, and
from external sources including members of the public. Assessments will be
reviewed regularly to ensure that judgments are based on the latest information.
In this way a subcontractor with a previously poor performance who demonstrates
significant improvement need not be excluded from consideration.
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