CSCS cards: which one do you need, and are they a legal requirement?

CSCS is the Construction Skills Certification Scheme. A CSCS card is the industry’s proof that the person holding it has the qualifications and training for their occupation and has passed a health and safety test. It carries the holder’s photo, registration number, card type and expiry date, and it can be held as a digital card in the My CSCS app as well as a plastic one.

CSCS Limited owns the logo and licenses it to card schemes that meet the Construction Leadership Council’s recommendations; CSCS Cards Limited runs the card scheme for the core construction occupations. CSCS is owned by Build UK, the Civil Engineering Contractors Association, the Federation of Master Builders, Unite and GMB.

CSCS does not run training, courses, qualifications or exams. It checks the evidence you send and issues the card. The qualification comes from a college or training provider, and the health and safety test from CITB.

NoteOther trades have their own schemes carrying the CSCS logo, grouped as the CSCS Alliance: CPCS and NPORS for plant, CISRS for scaffolding, ECS for electrotechnical work, the JIB-PMES card for plumbing, IPAF for powered access and PASMA for access towers among them. In Northern Ireland, CSR NI covers construction. A card from an Alliance scheme carries the same logo and is checked the same way.

No. CSCS says holding a card is not a legislative requirement, and that it is entirely up to the principal contractor or client whether workers must hold a valid card before they are allowed on site. Most principal contractors and major housebuilders insist on one.

The legal duty to keep unauthorised people off site belongs to the principal contractor, under regulation 13(4)(b) of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, and a card rule is one way of deciding who is authorised. A card does not guarantee access either: CSCS says you need the right card for your work, and a skilled worker holding a Labourer card will be refused.

No statute requires a CSCS card. The requirement comes from the principal contractor or client, and on most large sites it is enforced at the gate.

Not everyone on a site needs one. CSCS says visitors, non-construction workers and people on informal work experience do not need a card, though they may need supervision, an induction or extra risk assessment instead. On a domestic job for a homeowner, nobody is likely to ask, but the competence duties described below still apply.

CSCS issues thirteen cards. The colour tells you the level at a glance: green for labourers, blue and gold for skilled workers and supervisors, black for managers, white for professionally and academically qualified people, and red for the temporary cards held while somebody trains or gains a qualification.

The red cards are stepping stones. CSCS expects an Apprentice, Experienced Worker or five-year Trainee cardholder to finish the qualification before the card expires and then apply for a skilled card.

Work it out from the job you do and the qualification you hold. CSCS warns that the wrong card can get you refused entry.

1. 01Name your occupation. The card has to match the work you do on site, not the card a mate holds.
2. 02Check whether another scheme covers it. Certain occupations are covered by other schemes in the CSCS Alliance instead of by CSCS. The Alliance includes schemes for plant (CPCS, NPORS), scaffolding (CISRS) and electrotechnical work (ECS). If your occupation has its own scheme, apply there.
3. 03If you have finished a recognised qualification, the level decides the card: NVQ or SVQ level 2 or an apprenticeship for Blue, level 3 for Gold Skilled Worker, a supervisory level 3 or 4 for the Gold Supervisory card, management level 4 to 7 for Black. Professional body members apply for the white PQP card, and graduates with an accepted construction degree for the white AQP card.
4. 04If you are working towards one, register first. An apprentice gets the free red Apprentice card; someone registered on an NVQ or SVQ gets a Trainee card, or an Experienced Worker card if they already have the experience.
5. 05If you only labour and are not on a training pathway, the green Labourer card applies, with a Level 1 Award in Health and Safety in a Construction Environment or an approved alternative.
6. 06Pass the right CITB test within the two years before you apply.
7. 07Confirm it with CSCS’s Card Finder or the My CSCS app, then apply.

Which CITB test?

There is no such thing as a CSCS test. The test for most cards is the CITB Health, safety and environment test, booked through CITB, in three versions:

• Operatives: for the Labourer, Trainee and Apprentice cards and most Blue and Gold Skilled Worker cards.
• Specialists: the operatives test plus a specialist area such as supervision or working at height. Needed for the Gold Supervisory card and some skilled occupations.
• Managers and Professionals: for the Black Manager card and the PQP and AQP cards, where the CIC Health and Safety Test is also accepted.

Individuals apply through the My CSCS app; employers and training providers use CSCS Online. You need a copy of the qualification certificate, proof of registration on a qualification or proof of professional body membership, your CITB test ID, and the £36 fee, which the Apprentice card does not carry. Once approved, the digital card is available straight away and the plastic card should arrive within five working days.

• City and Guilds qualifications issued from 1 April 2013 need the e-certificate with its authentication code.
• Qualifications from outside the UK that CSCS does not recognise go to Ecctis for an Industry Skills Statement first.

Renewing

A card can be renewed from six months before the expiry date printed on it until a year after. Skilled, supervisory and manager cards renew on the qualification used last time, with the right CITB test passed in the previous two years. A Labourer card is renewed with a declaration form confirming you still work as a labourer. The Apprentice, Experienced Worker, Experienced Technical Supervisor or Manager, Industry Placement and Provisional cards cannot be renewed, and a PQP card holder applies for a new card instead.

If you have changed role or gained a qualification since your last card, apply for the card that matches it rather than renewing the old one.

Over the past decade CSCS has closed the routes to a card that did not need a recognised qualification. These dates explain why an old card may no longer be valid.

With CSCS Smart Check, not by looking at it. CSCS says a visual inspection will not detect a card that is fake, revoked or fraudulently obtained. Smart Check covers every card carrying the CSCS logo, across all the Alliance schemes, and shows the holder’s name, photo, card type, qualifications, expiry date and whether the card has been revoked.

• The website at CSCSSmartCheck.co.uk and the app on Google Play and the App Store are free to use.
• Digital cards in the My CSCS app are checked by scanning the card’s dynamic QR code with the Smart Check app.
• The API can be built into site access or induction systems through CSCS or an approved IT partner.
• The app and website need a connection, because they check against the live database. Check before the operative’s first day if the site has no signal.

Check the card against the work, not only the date. A card for one occupation says nothing about another.

CSCS itself says a card covers the skills and knowledge parts of competence, and that experience and behaviours must be assessed by employers and contractors. A card shows a qualification was achieved and a test passed, not that this person can do this task safely on this site.

The legal duty sits elsewhere. Regulation 8 of CDM 2015 requires a contractor to have the skills, knowledge and experience to do the work safely, and anyone appointing one to take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that they do. Regulation 15(7) says a contractor must not employ or appoint a person to work on a construction site unless that person has, or is in the process of obtaining, the skills, knowledge, training and experience for the tasks given to them.

A CSCS card helps you meet the competence duty in CDM 2015. It does not discharge it. The question the law asks is whether this person can do this task safely.

A card also says nothing about the site. The hazards, rules and emergency arrangements come from the site induction, the task’s RAMS and the toolbox talks that follow. For a subcontractor, the card sits alongside the insurance, CIS and right to work checks in vetting a subcontractor before they start.

In training and qualifications, each worker’s CSCS card is held as a named qualification type, alongside CPCS, NPORS, ECS, SMSTS, IPAF, PASMA and the rest, with the card number, issue and expiry dates and the uploaded certificate. You get an alert before a card runs out, so the lapse shows up in the office rather than at somebody else’s gate.

At the gate, QR site attendance can check a clock-on for an active, in-date CSCS card on the worker’s record. You set it to off, warn or block for each job, and it ships switched off. Block refuses the clock-on and names the check that failed.

NoteCard details are entered by your team. Estimark does not check a card against CSCS’s records, so check it with Smart Check when you first record it and again when it is renewed.

• About CSCS (CSCS)
• Frequently asked questions (CSCS)
• Types of CSCS cards (CSCS)
• Labourer card (CSCS)
• Trainee card (CSCS)
• How to apply for a CSCS card (CSCS)
• CITB Health, safety and environment test and alternatives (CSCS)
• Renew or replace a CSCS card (CSCS)
• CSCS to withdraw the Construction Site Visitor card (CSCS)
• Industry Accreditation renewals close (CSCS)
• How can I check a CSCS card? (CSCS)
• CSCS Smart Check FAQs (CSCS)
• CSCS Alliance members (CSCS Group)
• Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (legislation.gov.uk)