Spotlight on the Construction Playbook

In December 2020, the Cabinet Office, in conjunction with the Construction Leadership Council and wider industry, launched a series of recommendations on how the public sector should source and contract for construction projects.

These are set out in the Construction Playbook. It is an evolving document, having been last updated in September 2022. In this article Lucilla Waugh, partner and head of our construction and engineering team, explains what the Construction Playbook is and what it means for the construction industry overall.

What are the main aims of the Construction Playbook?

The Construction Playbook is designed to improve commercial practices and promote collaboration and innovation. The report mainly addresses how contracting authorities and their supply chain should engage with each other from project inception.

The Construction Playbook identifies 14 key policies on how public bodies should procure and provide public projects. These recommendations are rolled out on a ‘comply or explain’ basis, to allow some flexibility.

The Construction Playbook aims to provide “continuous improvement in building and workplace safety, cost, speed and quality of delivery, greater sharing of better data, investment in training the future workforce through upskilling and apprenticeships, and adoption of the UK BIM (Building Information Modelling) Framework.”

What are the key recommendations made by the Construction Playbook?

The Construction Playbook is over 80 pages long; this article serves as a reference and we would recommend viewing the original document here.

Below, we’ve highlighted the key recommendations made by the Construction Playbook and categorised them as pipeline, outcomes, early engagement, procurement process, evaluation, standardisation, payment and access to information.

Pipeline

• The Playbook favours long-term contracting across portfolios. This provides the certainty required by the supply chain to invest in new technologies and increase productivity. To sit alongside the Playbook is the Mosey Review’s ‘Constructing the gold standard’, a UK government report designed to independently review public sector frameworks. There are 24 recommendations to be followed to improve the overall value of framework contracts and action plans. They are designed to align with the policies within the Playbook.
  
  
• Contracting authorities should publish an 18-month procurement pipeline, with a pathway to three to five years and provide information to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority.
  
  
• Demand across individual projects and programmes will be harmonised and rationalised by contracting authorities.
  
  
• A new central government procurement pipeline will be introduced for public works projects, to assist contracting authorities with their understanding of the government’s long-term demand.

Outcomes 

• The Playbook takes an outcome-based approach. A new ‘Programme Outcome Profile’ has been developed to support the setting of clear outcomes that align with governmental priorities. Other factors should be considered, alongside the usual drivers of speed, cost and quality – such as wider values of policy intent, social factors and sustainability.
  
  
• There should be an evidence-based approach to selecting the best delivery model.  Contracting authorities should conduct strategic, commercial and outcome-based analysis from an early stage. 
  
  
• Projects and programmes should produce a ‘Should Cost Model’ to better understand whole life costs (capital, maintenance, management, operational costs and exit costs i.e., not just purchase price), value, carbon, and sustainability.
  
  
• The Building Safety Act is mentioned in the Playbook to highlight the importance of safety through the lifecycle of a building, as well as advice on entrenching the right behaviours and guidance for everyone involved in a project. This is a particular focus following from the Grenfell tower fire.

Early engagement

• Early engagement with the supply chain should inform the development of the business case for projects and programmes.
  
  
• Projects and programmes will assess the health and capability of the market early on in preparation. This is to encourage effective collaboration, enables identification of potential opportunities and limitations and reduces downstream issues/delays.
  
  
• Risk allocation will be determined by market engagement – suppliers have historically been put off by perceived inappropriate risk allocation by contracting authorities.
  
  
• All preliminary market consultation must observe the principles of equal treatment, non-discrimination, proportionality and transparency.
  
  
• Suppliers should be given sufficient time and knowledge of the tender documents to enable tenders to be of the best possible quality.

Procurement process

• Procurement processes should be of proportionate duration and effort to the size and complexity of the contract opportunity, removing unnecessary complications and barriers for Small and Medium-sized enterprises and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprises.
  
  
• Procurement, as with the rest of the project, should be run in accordance with the Supplier Code of Conduct, which aims to build trust and open relationships throughout supply chains, by collaboration with the spirit of the contract, public service values and promoting innovation and expertise.
  
  
• Suppliers can consult the Public Procurement Review Service should they have an issue with procurement practice or compliance with government policy. This service sits within the Cabinet Office and allows for concerns to be raised anonymously about suspected malpractice.
  
  
• Crucial contracts should be managed by experts as set out in the Contract Management Professional Standards framework. This framework outlines the technical and relationship standards that should be achieved.

Evaluation

• Contracting authorities should consider the competence of bidders during the pre-qualification stage, particularly their economic and financial standing to safeguard the delivery of the works. This financial monitoring should continue throughout the project.
  
  
• As part of the selection process, new ‘minimum standard’ will be adopted when assessing the risk of a supplier going out of business mid-contract to better safeguard the delivery of public works projects.
  
  
• A minimum weighting of 10% of the total score for social value should be applied to the procurement to ensure that it will be a differentiating factor in bid evaluation. Carbon reduction should be a specific criterion included. 

Standardisation

• Contracting authorities should use the UK BIM Framework to standardise the approach to generating and classifying data.
  
  
• The Standard Selection Questionnaire should be utilised. Some information about registered suppliers can be obtained via the Supplier Registration Service.
  
  
• Standardised contracts/contract terms should be used to simplify and speed up procurement practices.
  
  
• Contracting authorities should support the adoption of the Information Management Framework (IMF) and the creation of the National Digital Twin (NDT). The IMF, which enables secure information management and data handling, complements the NDT, which aims to create an ecosystem of digital models which share data to better predict the outcomes and risks of prospective infrastructure projects.

Payment

Payments to the supply chain should be made promptly. Where contracts are valued above £5 million per annum (ideally, all contracts), an assessment of a supplier’s payment systems and processes should be carried out as part of the selection process.

Access to information

• Benchmark analysis of past projects should be introduced to provide key insights and data to make intelligent investment decisions.
  
  
• Design, delivery and operation will be increasingly digitalised.
  
  
• The Playbook promotes transparency. The three most relevant key performance indicators from each of the government’s most important contracts will be made publicly available.

Sustainability

• The Playbook commits to 2050 net zero ambitions, using a whole life carbon approach, in relation to buildings, infrastructure and practices within the supply chain.
  
  
• In line with PPN 06/01, suppliers bidding for major contracts must detail their commitment to achieving net zero through the publication of a Carbon Reduction Plan.
  
  
• The entire project should be digitalised, where appropriate, in view of advancements made in information management and modern methods of construction. Digitalisation is a crucial new commitment in the 2022 Playbook.
  
  
• Benchmarking data is to be used to monitor greenhouse gas emissions.

What are the implications of the Construction Playbook?

Whilst the Playbook is well known to central governmental bodies and their affiliates, there is not as much awareness in the wider industry. As the Playbook is particularly focused on the importance of a holistic approach with the full engagement of the supply chain, this will need to change going forward.

In terms of procurement law, much of the recommendations build upon and are in line with, the new Procurement Bill currently working its way through Parliament. The Bill is expected to come into force next year and until then, following many of the practices in the Construction Playbook will enable authorities and bidders alike to prepare themselves for the transition to the new regime. 

Muckle LLP’s dedicated construction and engineering team offers pragmatic, commercial and expert legal advice for all types of construction and engineering contracts.

For more information or expert construction advice, contact Lucilla Waugh today using 0191 211 7984 or [email protected].

For procurement advice, contact partner and head of procurement Alison Walton using 0191 211 7850 or [email protected].