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Checking a Scaffolder Insurance and Accreditation

What CISRS, SSIP and public liability cover actually mean, what to ask for, and the checks that take five minutes and save a great deal of trouble.

Guide Scaffolding Price Estimator Team

Scaffolding is one of the trades where getting it wrong is not a cosmetic problem. Five minutes of checking before you book removes most of the risk.

Public liability insurance

£5 million is the industry norm for domestic scaffolding, and most local authorities require at least that before they will issue a highway licence.

Ask for the certificate. Then check three things people routinely skip:

  • The trading name on the certificate matches the name on your quote.
  • The policy dates cover your project, not last year.
  • The cover level is what they told you.

A certificate for a different company, or one that expired in March, is not cover.

Employers’ liability

Legally required if the firm has employees, currently £5 million minimum. A one-person operation working genuinely alone may not need it, but anyone bringing a second pair of hands to your site does.

CISRS

The Construction Industry Scaffolders Record Scheme is the recognised competence card for UK scaffolders. Cards run from Trainee through Scaffolder to Advanced Scaffolder, plus Scaffolding Supervisor and Inspection cards.

For a domestic job, you want the people erecting to hold at least Scaffolder cards, with an Advanced Scaffolder involved on anything non-standard, such as bridged sections, temporary roofs, or designed structures.

You can ask to see cards. Nobody reputable is offended by the question.

SSIP and trade bodies

SSIP (Safety Schemes in Procurement) accreditations, such as CHAS, SafeContractor and Constructionline, mean the firm’s health and safety documentation has been audited. Useful, though more common on commercial work.

NASC (National Access and Scaffolding Confederation) membership requires an annual audit and is a genuinely meaningful signal for a domestic customer. Not every good firm is a member, but membership is difficult to fake.

The five-minute check

  1. Ask for the public liability certificate and read the name and dates.
  2. Search the company name at Companies House. Check it exists, is active, and the trading name matches.
  3. Ask which CISRS cards the erecting team holds.
  4. Ask for one recent local reference and actually call it.
  5. Check the quote is on headed paper with a company number and VAT number where applicable.

Warning signs

  • Reluctance to provide an insurance certificate, or a promise to “send it later”.
  • A quote with no company details, no address and no company number.
  • Cash-only pricing with a discount for paying without paperwork.
  • No written specification of the scaffold being erected.
  • A trading name that does not match the bank details you are asked to pay into.

That last one is worth particular attention. Payment redirection fraud is common in construction; if bank details change mid-project, phone the company on a number you already had and confirm before paying.

Why it matters more here than elsewhere

If a badly built scaffold fails, the consequences are severe and the liability questions are complicated. Uninsured contractor, injured third party, and a homeowner who commissioned the work is not a position you want to be in, and it is entirely avoidable with a certificate and a phone call.

Once you are satisfied on competence, compare the quotes properly, but do the safety checks first.

Next steps

Work out your own number in 60 seconds. Enter your frontage length, working height, elevations and hire period, and the breakdown shows each cost component separately.

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