Is SSIP a Legal Requirement? When a Client Demand Is Negotiable

Last reviewed 19/09/2026.

No. There is no law that requires you to hold CHAS, SafeContractor, SMAS Worksafe, Acclaim or any other SSIP scheme. Under CDM 2015 the legal duty sits on whoever appoints you, and it is a duty to satisfy themselves that you are capable — not a duty to make you buy a certificate. Whether you can actually push back depends on which of three things is driving the request, and only one of them is usually negotiable.

Is SSIP a legal requirement in the UK?

The relevant wording is regulation 8 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Three short paragraphs do all the work:

Regulation 8(1) requires that a designer or contractor appointed to a project "must have the skills, knowledge and experience, and, if they are an organisation, the organisational capability, necessary to fulfil the role that they are appointed to undertake, in a manner that secures the health and safety of any person affected by the project."

Regulation 8(2) says a designer or contractor "must not accept an appointment to a project unless they fulfil the conditions in paragraph (1)."

Regulation 8(3) is the one that generates the paperwork you are being asked for: a person responsible for appointing a designer or contractor "must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the designer or contractor fulfils the conditions in paragraph (1)."

If you want the background on what the schemes are and how the umbrella fits together, start with what SSIP actually is.

That distinction is the whole basis for pushing back. Your client has a duty to be satisfied. They do not have a duty to be satisfied in one particular way, and nothing in CDM obliges you to fund their evidence trail.

Why is your client asking for it?

Almost every SSIP demand traces back to one of three things. They look identical in an email and they are not remotely equally negotiable, which is why "just tell them no" and "just pay it" are both bad general advice.

	How to recognise it	Negotiable?
A CDM duty	The client or principal contractor is appointing you for construction work and needs evidence of competence on file. Language is about assurance and records.	Partly. They must satisfy themselves somehow, but they can accept other evidence. Offer an alternative and many will take it.
An insurance or framework condition	Wording like 'our insurer requires', 'it is a condition of the framework', or the person telling you clearly cannot change it.	Rarely. The person you are speaking to genuinely has no authority to waive it. Pushing here wastes goodwill.
Procurement policy or a copied template	Often a managing agent or a buyer who cannot explain why. The requirement appears alongside irrelevant items. Nobody can name the scheme's purpose.	Often. This is where a direct conversation works, and where 'or equivalent' usually already exists in the paperwork.

How do you find out which one you are facing?

1. 1

   Ask one direct question: "Is this a contract condition, an insurance requirement, or a preference?" It is a fair question, it is not confrontational, and the answer tells you whether there is any point continuing.

2. 2

   Ask whether any SSIP member scheme is acceptable, or only the one they named. Clients frequently name the scheme they happen to know. If any member scheme will do, you can choose on price rather than on their habit.

3. 3

   Ask to see the actual wording. Tender and framework documents very often say "CHAS or equivalent". If that phrase is there, the argument is already over in your favour.

4. 4

   Offer the underlying evidence instead: your health and safety policy, risk assessments and method statements for the work in question, insurance certificates, and relevant training records. That is the substance a scheme certificate stands in for.

Can you push back, and what actually works?

What works is making it easy for the client to discharge their duty without your certificate. A tidy pack of the documents above, specific to the job rather than generic, gives a client something to put on file. For a smaller client appointing you directly, that is often enough, because their duty is to take reasonable steps — and reading your actual paperwork is a more reasonable step than checking a database entry.

What does not work is arguing that the schemes are poor value. That may be true, and the person reading your email cannot act on it. It reads as a reason not to deal with you.

The other thing worth knowing before you pay for a second scheme: SSIP operates mutual recognition, sometimes called Deem to Satisfy, so a valid certificate from one member scheme should be accepted by another for the core health and safety assessment rather than making you repeat it. It does not stretch to everything — Constructionline Gold and the Common Assessment Standard sit outside it — but plenty of contractors pay two or three times for something they only needed once. See SSIP mutual recognition explained for what it does and does not cover.

When is it genuinely not negotiable?

Be realistic about the cases where pushing back will simply cost you the work:

Public sector buyers and large frameworks generally have the requirement written into procurement rules that the individual buyer cannot vary. Where the Common Assessment Standard is specified, that is a defined question set rather than a preference, and no amount of alternative evidence substitutes for it. And where a principal contractor has standardised their supply chain onto one scheme, the administrative cost to them of making an exception for you is usually higher than the value of your tender.

In those cases the useful question is not whether you can avoid it but which single scheme covers the most of your pipeline.

Frequently asked questions

Is CHAS a legal requirement?

No. CHAS is a commercial certification scheme and a member of SSIP. No legislation names it. The legal duty is the one in CDM 2015 regulation 8, which requires whoever appoints you to take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves you are capable. CHAS is one common way clients do that.

Can I refuse to get SSIP and still work on site?

Legally, yes. Commercially, it depends entirely on the client. Nothing stops you working without it, but a client is free to decline to appoint you, and many will where their own procurement rules require the certificate.

My client says the HSE requires it. Is that right?

No. HSE enforces CDM and the Health and Safety at Work Act. It does not mandate membership of any commercial scheme. If someone tells you HSE requires CHAS specifically, they are mistaken about the source of their own requirement — which is usually a sign you are in the third category above.

Does holding one SSIP scheme mean I do not need another?

For the core health and safety assessment, usually yes, through mutual recognition. It does not cover Constructionline Gold, the Common Assessment Standard or client-specific PQQs, so check what the client is actually asking for before assuming you are covered.

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Regulation 8 of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, quoted above, checked 19/09/2026. Client duties sit at regulation 4. General CDM guidance is published by HSE. SSIP mutual recognition is described by SSIP.

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