Safety Schemes in Procurement

What it is

SSIP's own page states: "Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) is the mutual recognition scheme for occupational health and safety standards."

SSIP does not run assessments itself. Its own members page states: "SSIP don't carry out assessments directly – our members do."

It describes its own role as a coordinating body: "It operates as an umbrella organisation that encompasses assessment schemes with the common goal of reducing duplication and costs for both suppliers and buyers."

SSIP's Core Criteria set the shared assessment bar. Its own page states: "All assessments completed by Registered Members and Certification Body Members are equivalent and in accordance with the SSIP Core Criteria, ensuring the same threshold standard has been achieved by all suppliers." Elsewhere SSIP describes this Core Criteria as "a threshold standard approved by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)." HSE approves this threshold standard and is described as backing SSIP; HSE does not operate SSIP itself.

The mutual-recognition mechanism is called Deem to Satisfy. SSIP's own page states: "This means that all registered members agree to accept a current, valid approval from any other registered member, as long as the details are correctly displayed on the SSIP Portal."

SSIP's homepage states scale: "over 90,860 suppliers registered with an SSIP Member Scheme." The number of member schemes itself was not published on the pages opened for this record.

Who owns it

SSIP is owned and operated by Safety Schemes in Procurement Ltd.

Who assesses it

SSIP itself does not assess suppliers. Assessments are carried out by SSIP's member schemes — Registered Members (third-party health and safety assessment schemes, such as CHAS and SafeContractor) and Certification Body Members (UKAS-accredited ISO 45001 certification bodies) — all against the same SSIP Core Criteria.

Who asks for it

Voluntary. No source opened for this record states that SSIP membership, or membership in one of its member schemes, is a legal requirement. SSIP is a mutual-recognition mechanism between member schemes; buyers who choose to ask for SSIP-scheme approval do so voluntarily.

No source opened for this record states that any buyer or regulator legally requires SSIP membership or SSIP-scheme approval. Buyers who ask suppliers for a valid approval from an SSIP member scheme do so as a voluntary procurement choice, and Deem to Satisfy means one such approval is accepted across all SSIP member schemes.