IMPLEMENTATION OF NATIONAL HIGHWAY SECTOR SCHEME
The Highways Agency implements sector schemes through Series 100 and Appendix A of the Specification for Highway Works. Volume 1 in the Manual of Contract Documents for Highway Works can be found on the Agency’s web site.
Notice of publication of Sector Scheme 19A was included in a revision to Appendix A of the Specification, published in May 2006, therefore, any Organisation undertaking, or wishing to undertake, painting of steelwork for the Highways Agency under a contract that adopts the May 2006, or later revision of the Specification, will be required to comply with the requirements of Sector Scheme 19A and should be seeking registration to it, unless special arrangements apply as described in Appendix M of the Sector Scheme document.
The Sector Scheme itself was launched at the beginning of October 2006 through publication on the UKAS web site.
Recognising that full compliance with the scheme could take some time for Organisations to achieve, the Sector Scheme Advisory Committee agreed that an introductory period for implementation was appropriate, and decided that this period should end on 31st January 2008. Following expiry of this introductory period therefore, Organisations wishing to undertake painting of steelwork for the Highways Agency must have been assessed and be registered to the scheme by a relevant UKAS accredited Certification Body.
A further implementation target has been written into the scheme document in Appendix C, recognising that getting operatives trained, assessed and registered to the ICATS scheme was likely to provide the biggest challenge to Organisations seeking registration to the Sector Scheme.
It is proposed to publish a revised Sector Scheme document, in the near future, which will set implementation dates for each of the ICATS specialist modules.