Update from Highways England on Passport

The Passport solution has been developed due to the strong desire of the Supply Chain to introduce a shared platform between employers and contractors, to improve safety awareness when working on the Highways England network. The passport provides a single transferable record for each cardholder. As individuals move between organisations and across supply chains, their record travels with them, meaning that all their qualifications, skills, training and other details affecting their authority to work are available to you. Not only is this faster, but it ensures that you don’t waste time and money on unnecessary repeat training. You will also have visibility of your cardholders who have completed the Highways England Common Induction (HCI), avoiding having to go through the process again. Highways England strongly endorses Passport and whilst it has not mandated Passport, it encourages the supply chain to adopt Passport and will be specified in contracts upon award encouraging the supply chain to sign up to the Passport scheme within 6 months of award. 

The many benefits of implementing Passport are fully understood and supported by both the Supply Chain Safety Leadership Group and Highways England. Highways England is also actively involved in its promotion and take-up together with the Supply Chain Leadership Group and is firmly behind its implementation for all projects which use it. Example of Projects which have already confirmed their implementation of Passport include– Motorway Alliance, RDP M56, M42 J6 scheme, A4208 Blackcat roundabout on A1

As most people will know, Passport was run initially as a two-year proof of concept which started late in 2017 and a single charge for the POC was clearly communicated to all participants. Finalising terms for the new commercial arrangement took longer than expected so the suppliers of Passport (Mitie and Reference Point) ran the system free of charge until the new commercial arrangement was in place which has now been agreed until 2024.

For those worker records added during the previous proof of concept phase, the majority of these must be renewed before October 1st to remain valid. Any worker subscription that is due on 1st October can be renewed before this date at a rate of £25 (instead of the usual £29)  - and this subscription will be valid until September 30th, 2021. There is no need to delay subscription renewals.  Log in and simply check your worker records by clicking on the “Forthcoming Worker Subscriptions” shortcut on your user dashboard. Do make sure you renew subscriptions for all the workers you want to continue managing by September 30th. The annual charge will increase to £29 on 1st October for any renewal or new worker record added from that date.

What Happens on October 1st

From October 1st new workers added and subscription renewals will cost £29 + VAT each. There are no exemptions to this charge.

FAQ: As an employer or sponsor, what happens to any worker records under our management whose subscriptions expire at the end of September but we do not want to renew them?

Ideally, you should enter an employment leave date (and, where applicable, sponsor leave date) for these workers, so they no longer appear under your management.

However, at the end of October we will do an automatic sweep of all workers whose subscriptions have not been renewed in time so they are no longer visible or available to the company whose management they were under. These worker records can – of course – be picked up by a new employer and the annual subscription of £29 paid by the new company.

Also do not delay renewing or subscribing to the Passport Scheme due to awaiting the Highways Common Induction. To complete the HCI once available you will first need to be signed up to the scheme and have a Passport record.