The Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) Smart Check app will be rolled out from April 2022, allowing all cards displaying the CSCS logo to be electronically verified using a single app, and if you wish to be an early adopter of the CSCS Smart Check app, please contact communications@cscs.co.uk to register your interest.
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… sites and projects of all sizes have a quick and simple way to check any operative…
CSCS writes:
Developed by the 38 card schemes displaying the CSCS logo, CSCS Smart Check will radically improve the construction industry’s card checking procedures and site safety while also helping tackle fraud in the sector.
Organisations and their on-site card checkers will have a quick, easy and secure way of ensuring everyone on site has the right qualifications and training for the job they do, with the free app available for Apple iOS and Android devices.
What you need to know
- CSCS Smart Check can scan QR codes to validate both physical and virtual cards
- The app can also read contactless chips to validate cards
- All 38 schemes that carry the CSCS logo on their cards can be read by CSCS Smart Check
- The app works by scanning a CSCS Partner Scheme card, verifying whether it is genuine and if its details are correct for over two million construction workers in the UK
- The app has a live feed into the databases of each card scheme
- Help and support with FAQs and links to additional resources are available
FAQs can be found at the foot of this page.
Background
At the beginning of 2015, the Construction Leadership Council (CLC) announced via the Industrial Strategy: Construction 2025, that industry, including trade associations, contractors, clients and government, should specify and promote card schemes displaying the CSCS logo with no equivalents accepted. This is known as the One Industry Logo action.
In December 2020, the CLC issued a further update to its requirement regarding the implementation of Smart Technology by card schemes displaying the CSCS logo.
That update stipulated that “by 31 March 2022, all card schemes must use smart technology which has the capability to electronically check agreed information relevant to a cardholder, using a common interface, without the need to manually enter data”.
As such, the 38 CSCS partner card schemes have collaborated to produce the CSCS Smart Check app, designed to meet the requirement above.
Raising the bar on competence and tackling fraud
With CSCS Smart Check, sites and projects of all sizes have a quick and simple way to check any operative working in construction and the built environment is who they say they are, are suitably qualified for the job they are being engaged to do and have kept up to date with the latest requirements for health and safety, technical qualifications or CPD.
CSCS Smart Check will also help the industry in the battle against fraudulent cards – alerting site managers and CSCS to such cards in order to cancel them and alert authorities where necessary.
Since the introduction of the Construction Leadership Council’s (CLC) One Industry Logo action, requiring a qualification for all CSCS cards, criminal gangs have employed increasingly sophisticated operations to facilitate fraudulent qualifications.
Another driver for the increase in fraudulent activity is the rise in modern slavery. Modern slavery and human trafficking investigations show a high percentage of trafficked persons are employed in the construction industry, hence the interest from criminal gangs.
While CSCS estimates the number of fraudulent cards in circulation to be less than one per cent, any amount of fraud needs to be proactively addressed and we continue to work with industry and law enforcement to eradicate fraudulent activity and keep the workforce and wider public safe.
Construction fraud takes many forms, but the best way to tackle it is by checking CSCS cards regularly to ensure it is valid.
CSCS Partner Card Schemes
Further information on the 38 CSCS card schemes, including contact details, can be found here. If you wish to be an early adopter of the CSCS Smart Check app, please contact communications@cscs.co.uk for further info or to register your interest.
