The Major Contractors Group (MCG) may have failed to meet its target of ensuring that all workers on its members’ site have CSCS cards by 1 January.

ConstructionSkills, which administers the CSCS scheme, has increased the number of people manning its skills card hotline in anticipation of a flood of enquiries from workers who have failed to meet the deadline.

The MCG announced in August last year that from 1 January only workers with CSCS or affiliated cards would be allowed on MCG sites. It warned that this target would be “strictly adhered to” .

This target was set in collaboration with Skills Direct, the body that trains, tests and awards the CSCS cards.

Recent figures show that more than 70,000 CSCS cards have been issued to workers since August. More than 950,000 CSCS cards had been issued by the end of December 2006.

The MCG originally set a target of the end of 2003 to achieve a fully qualified workforce on all construction sites where an MCG member was the principal contractor.

Topics