How to Get CHAS Accreditation: A Step-by-Step Guide for Contractors

Quick answer: To get CHAS accreditation you choose a package (Standard, Advanced or Elite), join online, complete the assessment questionnaire and upload your documents. CHAS says a submitted assessment is "reviewed within a maximum of 10 working days" — or "a maximum of 2 working days" with its Fast Track service — and if the assessor needs more information you get a 2-week deadline to respond. Published starting prices are £429 a year (Standard), £659 (Advanced) and £949 (Elite), verified October 2026, scaling with the size of your business. Certification is valid for 12 months and renewed annually. The work is in the documents: a signed, current health and safety policy, activity-specific risk assessments and method statements, insurance and training records.

At a glance	What CHAS publishes (verified October 2026)
Packages	Standard (SSIP) · Advanced (adds the former PAS 91 standard) · Elite (Common Assessment Standard)
Starting prices	£429 · £659 · £949 a year — "costs scale according to the size of your organisation"
Review time	Within a maximum of 10 working days; 2 with Fast Track
If more information is needed	A 2-week deadline to respond
Certificate length	12 months, renewed annually

If a client has asked you for CHAS — whether a local authority, housing association or principal contractor — this guide walks through what CHAS assesses, what to prepare, and how to submit an application that does not get stuck in queries.

What Is CHAS (Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme)?

CHAS — the Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme, as Merton Council's 2004 press release on the scheme spells it out — evaluates whether your business has adequate health and safety management arrangements in place. CHAS says it was "Founded by Merton Council" and grew "to serve the wider public sector"; it describes itself as "a founding member of SSIP and the first to offer the Common Assessment Standard (CAS)".

Because CHAS is an SSIP member scheme, a CHAS certificate is recognised by other SSIP schemes through mutual recognition. CHAS describes Deem to Satisfy as "the mutual recognition process used by SSIP member schemes", which lets contractors with an existing SSIP certification "apply for certification with another member scheme without completing a full assessment again, subject to eligibility." Our SSIP guide explains how the schemes fit together.

For a broader overview of how CHAS fits into the wider prequalification system, see our Complete Guide to Construction Supplier Prequalification in the UK.

CHAS Standard vs Advanced vs Elite

CHAS publishes three contractor membership packages. Understanding the difference is important because it affects both cost and the scope of what you need to prepare.

CHAS Standard

The core health and safety assessment, which CHAS lists as meeting SSIP requirements. It evaluates your health and safety policy, risk assessments, safe systems of work, training arrangements, incident reporting and insurance. Published starting price: from £429 a year. If a client asks for "SSIP", Standard meets it; if they ask for "CHAS" without naming a level, check the tender wording.

CHAS Advanced

CHAS lists Advanced as meeting "the former PAS 91 standard" on top of SSIP requirements — a wider question set than Standard, covering the ground the withdrawn PAS 91 questionnaire used to address. Published starting price: from £659 a year.

CHAS Elite

CHAS lists Elite as the package that meets "Common Assessment Standard requirements". Build UK's CAS question set has ten sections — Identity, Financial, Corporate and Professional Standing, Health and Safety, Environmental, Quality, Building Safety, Fairness Inclusion and Respect, Information Security, and Information Management — so Elite goes well beyond health and safety. It is CHAS's equivalent of Constructionline Gold. Published starting price: from £949 a year.

Which should you choose? If your clients only ask for CHAS, Standard is sufficient. If you are tendering for larger contracts or working with clients who have broader compliance requirements, Elite provides more comprehensive coverage and may save you pursuing additional assessments separately. For a detailed breakdown of what each tier covers and how to decide based on what your clients actually ask for, see our guide on CHAS Standard vs Advanced vs Elite.

Documentation You Need Before Applying

CHAS's own guidance says "one of the most common reasons for delays is incomplete or outdated documentation", with businesses starting an application "before gathering the evidence required, resulting in multiple rounds of clarification requests." Gather and review every item on this list first.

1. Health and Safety Policy

Your policy must be signed by a director or owner, dated within the last 12 months, and specific to your business activities. A generic template downloaded from the internet will almost certainly be flagged. The policy should include a general statement of intent, organisation and responsibilities (named individuals), and arrangements for implementing the policy in practice.

2. Risk Assessments

Activity-specific risk assessments for the work your business carries out. These must demonstrate that you have identified the significant hazards associated with your operations and put proportionate controls in place. Assessors look for evidence that risk assessments are living documents — reviewed regularly and updated when circumstances change. Our construction risk assessment template guide shows the format CHAS assessors expect.

3. Method Statements and RAMS

Risk Assessment Method Statements (RAMS) for high-risk activities. These should show a clear, step-by-step approach to carrying out work safely, referencing the relevant risk assessments, required PPE, competence requirements, and emergency procedures.

4. Insurance Certificates

Current certificates for:

Employers' liability insurance — the legal minimum in Great Britain is £5 million (reg 3(1) of the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998; Northern Ireland has its own law); some clients ask for more
Public liability insurance — no statutory minimum; the level comes from your clients' contracts, so check the figure in the tender
Professional indemnity insurance — if you provide design or consultancy services

Certificates must be current. CHAS lists "submitting expired insurance certificates" first among the most common mistakes that delay certification.

5. Training Records

Evidence that your workforce holds appropriate competence qualifications:

CSCS cards for operatives
SMSTS (Site Management Safety Training Scheme) for site managers
SSSTS (Site Supervisors Safety Training Scheme) for supervisors
Trade-specific qualifications (e.g., IPAF, PASMA, asbestos awareness)
First aid at work certificates
Evidence of ongoing training and toolbox talks

6. Evidence of Competent Health and Safety Advice

Regulation 7(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 says every employer shall, "subject to paragraphs (6) and (7), appoint one or more competent persons to assist him" with health and safety compliance. (These are the Great Britain Regulations; in Northern Ireland the same duty is in regulation 7 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000.) Those paragraphs exempt a self-employed employer who is not in partnership, and a partnership, where that person (or at least one partner) has "sufficient training and experience or knowledge and other qualities" to do it themselves — and, in a partnership, that partner must also be able "properly to assist his fellow partners". Where someone in your employment is competent, regulation 7(8) says they are to be appointed "in preference to a competent person not in his employment" — so a retained external adviser is the route when nobody in-house has the competence. You will need evidence of the arrangement.

7. Environmental Policy (Elite)

A written environmental policy covering waste, pollution prevention, energy use and environmental awareness. ISO 14001 certification is optional: under CAS, holding it from a UKAS-accredited body (or EMAS) exempts you from questions 112-116, and without it you answer those questions with your own evidence.

8. Additional Policies (Elite)

Elite follows the CAS question set, so expect to evidence each of its sections — including quality management, fairness, inclusion and respect, and corporate and professional standing. Our Common Assessment Standard guide walks through them.

Use our Health & Safety Documentation Checklist to systematically check every requirement before you start the application.

Step-by-Step Application Process

Step 1: Audit Your Current Documentation

Before you spend anything on application fees, conduct an honest internal audit. Review each document against the requirements listed above. Check dates, signatures, specificity, and completeness. This is where most of the real work happens — the application itself is simple once your documentation is sound.

Step 2: Fill the Gaps

Address every issue identified in your audit. Rewrite generic policies to reflect your actual operations. Update risk assessments. Renew expired insurance. Ensure training records are complete and current. If you do not have access to competent health and safety advice, arrange this before applying.

Step 3: Choose Your Tier

Decide whether CHAS Standard, Advanced or Elite is appropriate for your business needs and client requirements. If in doubt, start with Standard — you can upgrade later.

Step 4: Register and Create Your Account

Visit the CHAS website and create an account. You will need to provide basic company information including registered company name, company number, business activities (using SIC codes and work category descriptions), number of employees, and contact details for the person managing the application.

Step 5: Complete the Online Application

The application is completed through the CHAS online portal. You will answer a series of questions about your health and safety management arrangements and upload supporting documentation. Answer honestly and specifically — vague or generic responses are a common trigger for referral.

Step 6: Upload Supporting Documents

Upload all the documentation outlined above. Ensure files are clearly named (e.g., "HS_Policy_2026_Signed.pdf" rather than "Document1.pdf"), legible, and complete. Missing pages or illegible scans cause delays.

Step 7: Pay the Application Fee

CHAS says "membership costs scale according to the size of your organisation and your needs". Published starting prices are Standard from £429, Advanced from £659 and Elite from £949 a year (verified October 2026). Our accreditation costs guide compares CHAS with the other schemes.

Step 8: Assessment Review

CHAS's published answer to "How long does a CHAS assessment take?" is: "Once you've completed and submitted your assessment, it will be assigned to one of our assessors and reviewed within a maximum of 10 working days. We also offer a Fast Track service, which takes the review period down to a maximum of 2 working days." CHAS also says all its assessors are NEBOSH-qualified.

Step 9: Respond to Any Queries

CHAS: "If further information is required, a 2-week deadline date will be issued and all responses will need to be submitted by this date." CHAS does not publish what happens on the deadline itself, but it does say that if your application "has been closed for less than 14 days, we'll be able to reopen it for a fee. Unfortunately, this can only be offered once. Any further failures will require a new application."

Step 10: Receive Your Certificate

Once the assessor is satisfied, you receive your CHAS certificate, valid for 12 months. CHAS says your "business name, details and compliance information will be displayed on the VeriforceONE portal", which is what buyers search.

Common Reasons Applications Fail

CHAS says "some of the most common mistakes include": expired insurance certificates, risk assessments that do not relate to current work activities, missing signatures, failing to evidence workforce training, generic documentation, and inconsistent information across documents. In more detail:

Generic or Template Policies

CHAS warns that "generic templates that have not been adapted to your business can create concerns during assessment because they may not demonstrate how risks are managed in practice." Your health and safety policy must reflect your business — the specific activities you carry out, the hazards your workforce encounters, and the control measures you actually implement. A bricklaying contractor's policy should read very differently from an electrical contractor's.

Outdated Documentation

Policies not reviewed within 12 months, expired insurance certificates, lapsed training qualifications. If a document has a date on it, the assessor will check it. Build a rolling review schedule so nothing expires unnoticed.

Incomplete Risk Assessments

Risk assessments that do not cover your core activities, or that identify hazards without specifying adequate control measures. Assessors are looking for evidence that you genuinely engage with the risk assessment process, not that you have ticked a box.

No Evidence of Competent Advice

Failing to demonstrate access to competent health and safety assistance is a fundamental compliance gap. This is a legal requirement, and assessors will look for evidence of either an in-house competent person or a retained external adviser.

Poor Presentation and Organisation

Illegible documents, unclear file names, missing pages, and disorganised submissions all slow the process and increase the likelihood of referral. Treat the application as you would a tender submission — clear, professional, and complete.

Mismatched Information

Inconsistencies between your application answers and your uploaded documents. If your policy says you employ 30 people but your application says 15, the assessor will query it. Ensure everything aligns.

How Long Does CHAS Last?

CHAS states that "CHAS certification is valid for 12 months. To maintain certification, you'll need to renew annually." Keep your documents current through the year so renewal is an update rather than a rebuild — our CHAS renewal guide covers what changes at renewal.

CHAS Accreditation FAQs

What does CHAS stand for? Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme.

How much does it cost to get CHAS? From £429 a year (Standard), £659 (Advanced) or £949 (Elite) — CHAS's published starting prices, verified October 2026. The price scales with the size of your business. See our CHAS tiers comparison.

How long does CHAS take? CHAS reviews a submitted assessment within a maximum of 10 working days, or 2 with Fast Track. Allow time to prepare your documents before you submit.

Is CHAS hard to get? The common problems are avoidable ones. CHAS says "many applications are delayed by avoidable mistakes" — the ones it lists include expired insurance, risk assessments that do not match your work, missing signatures, missing training evidence.

What happens if I fail CHAS? If the assessor needs more information you get a 2-week deadline. A closed application can be reopened once, for a fee, within 14 days; after that you need a new application.

Preparing for Success

The contractors who pass first time share common traits: they prepare thoroughly before applying, they treat their health and safety management systems as operational tools rather than paperwork exercises, and they present their documentation clearly and professionally.

If you are unsure whether your business is ready to apply, start with our Construction Accreditation Readiness Scorer for a quick assessment, then use the Health & Safety Documentation Checklist to identify specific gaps. Work through each area systematically, and only submit your application once you are confident that every requirement is covered.

The investment of time upfront pays for itself — not just in avoiding failed applications and wasted fees, but in building health and safety systems that genuinely protect your workforce and your business.

Sources and References

CHAS FAQ (review times, Fast Track, 2-week deadline, reopening) — chas.co.uk
CHAS contractor products and packages (published starting prices, verified October 2026) — chas.co.uk
CHAS SSIP certification (12-month validity, Deem to Satisfy) — chas.co.uk
CHAS health and safety assessment (VeriforceONE portal, NEBOSH-qualified assessors) — chas.co.uk
London Borough of Merton press release, 19 February 2004, "CHAS goes from strength to strength" ("Contractors Health and Safety Assessment Scheme") — news.merton.gov.uk
CHAS — about (founded by Merton Council; founding member of SSIP) — chas.co.uk
CHAS — how to prepare for an SSIP assessment and avoid common mistakes — chas.co.uk
Build UK — Common Assessment Standard Question Set, Version 5 — builduk.org (PDF)
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, reg 7 — legislation.gov.uk
Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000, reg 7 (the Northern Ireland equivalent) — legislation.gov.uk
Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Regulations 1998, reg 3 — legislation.gov.uk
Employer's Liability (Defective Equipment and Compulsory Insurance) (Northern Ireland) Order 1972, art 5 (Northern Ireland's own compulsory-insurance law) — legislation.gov.uk

Disclaimer: This guide is based on CHAS's and Build UK's published information, verified October 2026, and common industry practice. It is general guidance, not legal or procurement advice. TenderReady is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting on behalf of CHAS or any other named accreditation body. Application processes, fees, and assessment criteria are subject to change — always verify current details with CHAS directly.