GIRI calls for focus on error reduction to drive construction productivity

The Get It Right Initiative (GIRI) has written to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) calling for greater emphasis on error in civil engineering to improve competition and productivity.  This is in response to the CMA’s interim report on its UK civil engineering market study for roads and railways, which found that the sector is stuck in a cycle of inefficiency.   

GIRI has urged the regulator to make error reduction a core part of market reform – GIRI’s own research shows that avoidable error costs the UK construction sector up to £25 billion every year, a sum greater than the annual public spending on road and rail maintenance combined.  Chipping away at this figure would help to restore confidence among investors, clients and the taxpayers funding government-backed projects. 

In its submission, GIRI highlights three priority areas:.   

1. Procurement must explicitly support error reduction training, ensuring teams have the skills and culture required to identify, report and prevent mistakes.   
2. Publicly funded or publicly backed infrastructure programmes – such as major road and rail schemes – should be required to adopt consistent error reporting regimes, enabling transparency and driving behavioural change.  
3. Regulators should fast track approvals for technologies that reduce error (as recommended by the CMA), while making sure the appropriate safeguards around AI enabled tools are in place to prevent new types of error from creeping into processes.  

This response builds on GIRI’s ongoing work with industry bodies and government departments, including the development of an error measurement methodology with Cranfield University and collaboration with the Department for Business and Trade on a productivity PAS to improve construction outcomes through public procurement. 

By recognising error as a systemic market issue, GIRI believes the CMA can enable a more productive, resilient and competitive civil engineering sector – unlocking value for businesses, taxpayers and society. 

You can read GIRI’s full consultation response to the CMA here:

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69a550af286b6fdc85daeb25/Get_it_right_initiative.pdf