Constructionline is a register for pre-qualified contractors and consultants used in the

construction industry of the United Kingdom The construction industry is one of the major industry sectors in the economy of the United Kingdom, contributing about 6% of UK gross value added in 2019. In 2018, it was, by GVA, the sixth biggest construction sector in the world. Scale and co ...

. Originally established by the UK government in 1998, it was later (2015) acquired and operated by

Capita Capita plc is an international business process outsourcing and professional services company headquartered in London. It is the largest business process outsourcing and professional services company in the United Kingdom, with an overall ma ...

before being bought by

Warburg Pincus Warburg Pincus LLC is a global private equity firm, headquartered in New York City, with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia and India. Warburg has been a private equity investor since 1966. As of April 2024 the f ...

in June 2018. Combined with other businesses, it was sold to another private equity firm,

GTCR GTCR LLC is a Chicago, Illinois-based private equity firm focused on leveraged buyout, leveraged recapitalization, growth capital and rollup transactions. The firm principally invests in high-growth industries, including financial services & te ...

, in July 2023. The Constructionline database has details of over 45,000 suppliers, and is accessible to around 10,000 buyers from 3,800 organisations.

History

The 1994

Latham Report The Latham Report, titled ''Constructing the Team'', was an influential report written by Sir Michael Latham, published in July 1994. Latham was commissioned by the United Kingdom government and industry organisations to review procurement and cont ...

recommended the establishment of a national database of pre-qualification information which all public sector procurers could use. Constructionline was established in 1998 by the

UK government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

to provide a single point of reference for all pre-qualification data for the construction industry. It was originally operated under a concession agreement by Capita. In July 2014 the

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) was a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It was created by the Gordon Brown premiership on 5 June 2009 by the merger of the Department for Innovation, Uni ...

announced it was looking to sell the database and in January 2015 it was subsequently acquired outright by Capita for £35m. Constructionline provides procurement and supply chain management services, helping buyers source suppliers. As well as its database, Constructionline hosted Meet the Buyer and supplier engagement events across the UK. On 31 January 2018, Capita announced it planned to sell Constructionline as part of a transformation programme including disposal of non-core assets and cost cutting. In June 2018, it was reported that Constructionline had been sold to private equity investor

for £160m. In March 2020, Warburg Pincus agreed a deal to take over Builder's Profile, a provider of software used to manage information on subcontractors. This business, Constructionline and rail sector specialist Altius VA were organised into a UK group called Fortius. In late 2021, Fortius joined with France-based Actradis and Once For All, to form the Once For All group, headquartered in Paris. The group was sold to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based private equity firm

in July 2023. The Constructionline database contains details for over 45,000 suppliers. It is accessed by around 10,000 buyers from 3,800 organisations.

Criticisms

Constructionline has long faced criticisms from construction bodies. Research by

Salford University The University of Salford is a Public university, public research university in Salford, Greater Manchester, Salford, Greater Manchester, England, west of Manchester city centre. The Royal Technical Institute, Salford, which opened in 1896, be ...

in 2003 reported past criticism of the number and type of public sector clients using it and low levels of commitment to the system: a third of 900 clients signed up to the scheme were "sleeping" clients; some businesses signed up to Constructionline "to curry favour with government", while other clients showed "lukewarm commitment... making only patchy use of it". In a survey of members of the Association of Consulting Engineers in 2001, two thirds of firms complained that they were being made to undertake pre-qualification procedures despite being registered with Constructionline. The Salford researchers confirmed many of the original problems persisted, but did find evidence of the benefits to the construction industry of using Constructionline in terms of tangible financial savings.Steele, A, Sodhi, D and Todd, S (2003)
Constructionline: a review of current issues and future potential
, ''Structural Survey'', 21 (1), pp. 16-21. Many public sector clients continued to use their own bespoke pre-qualification procedures, because Constructionline relied on self-certification and did not command clients' confidence. In 2008, the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

Business and Enterprise Select Committee The Business and Enterprise Select Committee was a select committee of the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The remit of the committee was to examine the expenditure, administration and policy of the Department for Busine ...

said Constructionline had "proved unsatisfactory for the industry. The Government should either make it work, or abandon it." Constructionline was also criticised for increasing specialist contractors' costs by insisting on accreditation to the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme (CHAS) rather than compliance. Constructionline was also criticised for poor assessment of the financial standing of contractor

Carillion Carillion plc was a British multinational construction and facilities management services company headquartered in Wolverhampton in the United Kingdom, prior to its liquidation in January 2018. Carillion was created in July 1999, following a ...

prior to the 2017 award of a £133m contract by the

Northern Ireland Housing Executive The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is the public housing authority for Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest social housing landlord, and the enforcing authority for those parts of housing orders that involve houses with multiple ...

; Carillion went into liquidation in January 2018.

References

{{reflist

External links

Constructionline website
Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Construction industry of the United Kingdom Warburg Pincus companies