Constructionline Gold vs the Common Assessment Standard: Which One Does Your Buyer Actually Want?

If a main contractor has asked for Constructionline Gold and a framework has asked for the Common Assessment Standard, it is natural to assume that is two certificates and two bills. It usually isn't. The Constructionline Gold vs Common Assessment Standard question is a false fight, because Gold is one of the routes to the Common Assessment Standard rather than an alternative to it. Getting that straight is the difference between paying once and paying twice.

Last reviewed: 05/10/2026.

TL;DR

Constructionline Gold is a Common Assessment Standard (CAS) certification, not a rival to it — Build UK lists Constructionline Gold as the desktop-level CAS product and Constructionline Platinum as the site-based one, alongside six other Recognised Assessment Bodies (Build UK). So the real decision is not "Gold or CAS", it is "which Recognised Assessment Body do I buy my one CAS certificate from, and do I also need to be listed in the Constructionline directory?". Build UK says each assessment body sets its own fees, which is why prices vary widely — Smas Worksafe lists Worksafe Pro, its CAS product, from £669, while Constructionline prices on a turnover band behind a calculator. CAS certificates last 12 months from the date of issue and lapse if time-critical documents such as insurance aren't kept current. Read your buyer's email wording carefully: if they named Constructionline Gold specifically, a CAS certificate from another body may not satisfy them.

Is Constructionline Gold the same as the Common Assessment Standard?

For practical purposes, yes — at desktop level. Build UK, which owns the Common Assessment Standard, publishes a table of Recognised Assessment Bodies and the product each one sells, and Constructionline Gold sits in the desktop column with Constructionline Platinum in the site-based column (Build UK, Common Assessment Standard). Constructionline's own supplier FAQs say the same thing from the other direction: for the desktop audit you need to be verified to Gold against the Common Assessment Standard question set, and for the on-site audit you need Platinum (Constructionline supplier FAQs).

Build UK currently recognises seven assessment bodies. Here is who sells what, as published by Build UK on 05/10/2026:

Source: Build UK, Recognised Assessment Bodies, checked 05/10/2026.

What does the Common Assessment Standard actually cover?

The Common Assessment Standard is an industry-agreed stage 1 pre-qualification question set developed by Build UK. The current version, Version 5, was published on 01/07/2025 and is divided into 10 sections covering identity, financial, health and safety, quality, environmental, corporate and professional standing, and building safety, among others (Build UK overview for public sector clients, July 2025). Build UK states that over 21,000 suppliers are certified to the standard and that certification is valid for one year from the date of issue, provided time-critical documents are updated when they expire.

Two things in that question set matter disproportionately to a small firm. First, holding a valid SSIP certificate or ISO 45001 exempts you from chunks of the health and safety section — the question set asks for it directly. Second, for companies meeting the micro-business criteria the assessment standards are applied proportionately. Constructionline describes that threshold as fewer than 10 employees with either turnover or a balance sheet total under £1.8 million (Constructionline, Common Assessment Standard explained). If you are a six-man firm, check you have been assessed on the micro-business basis before you start writing policies you don't need.

Do you need Constructionline Gold, or just CAS from the cheapest body?

This is the question worth £500 a year to a small subcontractor, and it comes down to what the buyer's portal is for.

Build UK operates a data-sharing solution between the Recognised Assessment Bodies. Once you are certified, your verified data on 33 key questions — company information and certification expiry dates — can be made visible in another body's portal, updated in real time. Crucially, Build UK is explicit that no documentation is shared, and that data is not shared on products that are not aligned to the standard, such as Constructionline Silver or CHAS Premium Plus (Build UK, Data Sharing: An Overview).

So if a buyer uses Constructionline for supply chain management and simply needs to see that you are CAS-certified, getting CAS elsewhere and requesting a data share can work. If the buyer's onboarding form has a box that says "Constructionline Gold — verified", or they want to find you through the Constructionline directory, shared data is not the same as being a Gold member.

What does it cost in 2026?

Build UK is straightforward about this: each Recognised Assessment Body has its own fee structure, and you have to ask them directly (Build UK overview, July 2025). That is the honest answer, and it is why no single published figure covers "the cost of CAS".

What is published:

• Smas Worksafe lists Worksafe Pro, its Common Assessment Standard package, from £669 (Smas Worksafe packages, checked 05/10/2026).
• Constructionline does not publish a flat Gold price. Its sub-contractor membership page prices by turnover band (15 bands, from under £75,000 to £50 million and above) and asks whether you already hold a valid SSIP before showing a figure. Its supplier FAQs state annual membership starts "from as little as £399 a year", plus a one-off joining fee for new members based on turnover band — but that entry figure is not specific to Gold. TODO(verify) Gold-specific joining and annual fee by turnover band.
• CHAS Elite (CAS) and the other bodies price on request. TODO(verify).

A worked example: a 12-engineer M&E firm on roughly £900k turnover

Say Mick's firm does commercial maintenance, holds SMAS Worksafe SSIP already, and gets two requests in the same fortnight. A tier 1 fit-out contractor asks for "Constructionline Gold". A housing association framework asks for "the Common Assessment Standard".

The wrong move is to buy both. The sequence that works:

1. 1
   Confirm the two requests are the same standard. Check the Build UK Recognised Assessment Bodies table. Constructionline Gold is the desktop CAS product, so one Gold certification answers both requests.
2. 2
   Check whether either buyer names a body. The fit-out contractor named Constructionline. That settles it — buying Worksafe Pro from Smas for £669 would deliver CAS but not a Constructionline Gold profile.
3. 3
   Get a Constructionline Gold quote for the £700,000–£999,999 turnover band, answering "yes" to the existing SSIP question so the Deemed to Satisfy route is applied rather than a duplicate assessment.
4. 4
   Request a data share to any other body the housing association uses, if it isn't Constructionline. Build UK's data sharing puts the 33 verified key questions in their preferred portal at no extra assessment.
5. 5
   Diary the renewal and the document expiries separately. The CAS certificate runs 12 months from issue; the insurance certificate underneath it does not.

If neither buyer had named a body, the decision flips entirely to price and turnaround, and the cheapest published desktop route wins. Compare the wider field in our accreditation comparison hub and the Common Assessment Standard cost guide.

Why the renewal is harder than the application

Here is the part that catches small firms out, and it is in Build UK's own documentation. A CAS certificate is valid for one year from the date of issue provided that any time-critical documents are updated when they expire. Build UK's data-sharing overview adds that shared data is updated in real time and will show where a supplier has not updated time-critical information such as insurances.

Read that again from a buyer's point of view. Your public liability certificate renews in March, your CAS certificate renews in September. Miss the March upload and, in a portal you have never logged into, belonging to a contractor you have never met, your record quietly shows as not current. Nobody rings you. The enquiry just stops coming.

This is the residual admin that mutual recognition was never designed to fix — see what SSIP mutual recognition does not cover. Deem to Satisfy stops you re-answering the health and safety questions; it does nothing about the annual re-audit, the mid-year document expiries, or the fact that Gold and CAS are both outside SSIP mutual recognition in the first place.

TradeComply exists for exactly that gap. It tracks every accreditation you hold with renewal reminders at 60, 30 and 7 days by email and calendar, tracks expiry on the documents themselves — insurance, RAMS, training records — not just on the certificate, and gives you a share link that hands a main contractor your current paperwork without an email chain. One price, £9.90 a month or £99 a year, no document limit and no per-scheme surcharge. See pricing, or read our guide to accreditation renewal deadlines.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Constructionline Gold count as the Common Assessment Standard?

Yes. Build UK lists Constructionline Gold as the desktop-level Common Assessment Standard product from Constructionline, one of seven Recognised Assessment Bodies, with Constructionline Platinum covering the site-based level. Passing Gold means you hold CAS at desktop level.

Can I get the Common Assessment Standard without joining Constructionline?

Yes. Build UK recognises seven assessment bodies, including Achilles, Compliance Chain, CQMS, SCCS, Smas Worksafe and Veriforce CHAS, and you can buy CAS from any of them. You will get a valid CAS certificate, but not a Constructionline membership or directory profile.

Do I need CAS if I already hold an SSIP certificate?

Not necessarily. SSIP covers health and safety only; CAS covers 10 sections including financial, quality, environmental and building safety. Holding a valid SSIP certificate exempts you from parts of the CAS health and safety questions, but it does not give you CAS. Whether you need CAS depends on your buyer — see whether SSIP is a legal requirement.

How long does a Common Assessment Standard certificate last?

Build UK states that CAS certification is valid for one year from the date of issue, provided any time-critical documents — insurances in particular — are updated when they expire. Companies are certified once a year by a Recognised Assessment Body.

Is the Common Assessment Standard mandatory for public sector work?

It is not a legal requirement. Build UK states that central government departments and wider public sector bodies should use CAS to pre-qualify construction suppliers in accordance with PPN 03/24, and Constructionline describes it as the preferred pre-qualification method for public sector projects exceeding £5.337 million. For anything fact-specific to your tender, ask the contracting authority.

Where to go next

• The Common Assessment Standard explained — what the question set asks and what evidence it wants.
• Constructionline Bronze, Silver and Gold compared — what each tier actually adds.
• Constructionline cost — how the turnover-band pricing works.
• Do I need more than one accreditation? — when a second scheme is genuinely required.