ICE issues guidance on PAS 4010 infrastructure productivity standard listed by BSI

The Institution of Civil Engineers published companion guidance on 9 November 2026 for PAS 4010:2026, BSI's fast-track specification on managing and improving productivity in infrastructure projects, which BSI's product page lists for publication on 30 November 2026.

The standard, titled Infrastructure. Improving productivity in infrastructure development and delivery. Specification, covers new projects and programmes of work as well as the management or retrofit of existing assets and networks, BSI said.

It gives clients and asset owners a central role in running a strategy for productivity management, but BSI said it is intended for the whole infrastructure value chain, with specific requirements for asset owners and clients, designers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.

Andy Alder, chair of the PAS 4010 technical advisory panel, said in the foreword to the ICE guidance: "We do not have the money, the carbon budget or the time to continue building in the ways we always have."

Industry backing

BSI said the standard is backed by the Infrastructure Client Group (ICG) through its Client Commitments for Productivity Improvement initiative. BSI also said that 15 chief executives of UK infrastructure contractors and design consultants signed a letter of support during the public consultation, which closed on 1 July according to the ICE.

The ICE guidance foreword credits the ICG and the Department for Transport with sponsoring the work. In June 2026 the ICE had described the standard as being sponsored by the ICE and the Department for Transport, and said BSI planned to publish in October. BSI's product page now gives a publication date of 30 November 2026.

Mark Hansford, the independent consultant writing PAS 4010, said at an ICE session reported in June: "This is about strengthening what organisations already do."

According to BSI's brochure, the standard enables organisations to set a strategy to manage performance, define accountability, measure outcomes and drive improvement, and to integrate climate and wider co-benefits into productivity management and decision making. On its product page, BSI said the standard supports wider objectives including climate change mitigation and adaptation, waste reduction and carbon reduction.

The standard was developed under BSI committee ZZ/1 and carries ISBN 978 0 539 34551 3.

The ICE guidance

The ICE describes its Guidance document for PAS 4010:2026 as a companion to the specification. "Where the specification says what to do, this document is here to help people do it," the institution said.

The guidance describes the strategy for productivity management, or SPM, as the framework through which productivity is understood, planned, governed and improved. Alder said the guidance is intended to be a living document.

Julie Wood, ICE President 2026-27, said in the guidance's welcome that the infrastructure sector needs to be more productive.

Background

BSI said construction productivity lags the wider UK economy in output per hour worked, citing data from the Office for National Statistics. ONS analysis published on 19 October 2021 found average productivity in construction has stayed consistently below the UK average, although civil engineering has consistently been the most productive sub-industry within construction and is the only construction industry above the whole economy in productivity levels.

The UK 10 Year Infrastructure Strategy, published on 19 June 2025 by HM Treasury and the National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority, said infrastructure investment in the UK has been too erratic and too low, hampering productivity and wages, and that coordination across sectors and between government and industry has been insufficient.

BSI's product page says a DRM-free copy of PAS 4010:2026 can be downloaded from its Knowledge site.