A new standard designed to improve productivity in the development and delivery of built environment infrastructure has been published by BSI
Sponsored by the Department for Transport (DfT) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE), the PAS 4010 standard gives clients and asset owners, designers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers a consistent approach to managing and improving productivity across infrastructure programmes and projects.
PAS 4010:2026 Infrastructure – Improving productivity in infrastructure development and delivery – Specification – applies throughout the infrastructure lifecycle and across the value chain. It defines improving productivity as increasing efficiency and effectiveness, meaning both the output delivered for a given level of input and the resulting outcomes achieved.
An accompanying guidance document that expands on how to apply the PAS has also been published by the ICE.
UK infrastructure productivity is lagging behind
Improving productivity in major infrastructure is an essential enabler of the UK Government’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, both to deliver the scale of work planned and to achieve the outcomes it sets out.
However, construction productivity lags the wider UK economy in terms of output per hour worked, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.
This is part of a broader challenge, with the Infrastructure Strategy, drawing on ONS data, also highlighting the gap in economy-wide UK productivity growth since 2008, compared with other countries, including the US, France and Germany.
How the PAS 4010 standard works
PAS 4010 helps organisations put in place a strategy for managing productivity, setting out who is responsible, how progress is measured and how it is improved over time.
It gives the sector a practical framework to increase productivity, clarifies each part of the value chain’s role, and encourages organisations to consider productivity across the whole life of an asset. It also helps them factor in wider benefits, such as climate change mitigation, when making decisions.
There are many different areas where productivity improvements can be realised. For example, embedding productivity into scoping and procurement, better use of data, repeatable and modular design and assembly, minimising the misuse of materials, and supporting continuous improvement throughout the lifetime of a project.
By enabling a more consistent, strategic and joined-up approach across the value chain, the standard is intended to help scale up productivity improvements across infrastructure.
It also recognises the important role of senior managers and leaders in creating an open culture that enables people to bring forward improvement ideas, raise issues, embed learning and share best practice.
Helping businesses implement PAS 4010
The accompanying guidance document provides practical advice, case studies and implementation tools to support adoption of PAS 4010.
It promotes an “Avoid, Switch, Improve” hierarchy, encouraging organisations to eliminate unnecessary work, identify better solutions and optimise what remains.
Case studies in the guidance include a water project that saved more than £30m by repurposing existing assets rather than building a new pipeline, and a transport project that saved 36 weeks and £370,000 by redesigning a construction process.
Scott Steedman, director-general, standards, BSI, said: “Reaching consensus on how industry could improve productivity in the delivery of infrastructure projects has been an urgent priority for BSI as the national standards body, for the construction sector and for government.
“The launch of PAS 4010 is the culmination of a commitment by leading built-environment experts to agree on what good looks like in delivering major projects in the UK. The new standard provides a strategic framework for the entire industry, from clients and asset owners to contractors and suppliers, to improve productivity.”
He concluded: “With over £700 billion of investment committed in the government’s 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, PAS 4010 has the potential to deliver huge benefits for the nation.”
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