Forthcoming changes in April 2020
Change to the price of the HS&E test
From 1 April 2020, the price of the CITB HS&E test will be changing. The new price of the test(s) will be £21.50. Candidates who book their test on or after 1 April 2020 will pay £21.50 to enable them to take their test.
Vouchers purchased before 1 April 2020 will still be valid, and candidates who book their test after the 1 April 2020 will still be able to use the voucher purchased with no additional cost incurred.
Candidates who purchase vouchers from 1 April 2020, will need to pay the new price of £21.50.
The increase will allow CITB to continue to reinvest in a product that meets the expanding health and safety requirements of construction, as well as keep up to date with developments in how best to assess the application of knowledge.
Change to the identification requirements for taking the HS&E test
From 1 April 2020, CITB's ID policy will be changing. If you are taking your Health, Safety & Environment test on or after 1 April 2020, you will need to read and understand the new ID policy.
There will be a one month grace period from 1 April 2020 – 1 May 2020 for candidates who provide a form of ID which does not feature on the revised ID Policy. After 1 May 2020; candidates who provide a form of ID which does not appear on the revised ID Policy, will be required to provide the correct form of ID before sitting their test.
June 2019
Changes were made to make the test even more robust so that operatives can continue to be safe on the job, and know their fellow workers are just as qualified to contribute to a safe working environment. Employers can also have assurance that their qualified workforce is less likely to lose days to injuries on the job.
Up to date with current practice and legislation
All versions of the test were reviewed, and where applicable the questions were updated to keep up with current legislation.
The Operatives test in particular underwent a substantial update to better reflect the range of day to day tasks and repsonsibilities an operative has on site.
CITB worked with construction health and safety managers and trainers with years of hands-on experience in making these changes, so that the revised HS&E test is up-to-date and fit for the needs of workers and employers.
Level playing field
Each person taking the revised Operatives test will have the same proportion of easy, medium and hard questions. The test will continue to serve up a random combination of questions to a candidate, but each combination will have the same level of difficulty.
We worked with industry experts to make sure that all the test questions were rated for difficulty, so that the revised test is a 'level playing field' for operatives who take it.
One score to pass
Instead of two sections of questions to answer candidates only have one in the revised test. The behavioural case study questions have been removed.
The test will still examine whether candidates know the right behaviours to demonstrate in the job, as behavioural elements have been incorporated into many of the test questions
As there will only be one section of questions, the score will be simpler to understand as a result.
With the new scoring, candidates will now need the following scores to pass the test:
- for the Operatives test, the pass mark is 45 out of 50
- for the Specialists test, the pass mark is 45 out of 50
- for the Managers and Professionals test, the pass mark is 46 out of 50.
Please note detailed score reports will no longer be available, all information available as to what areas you have passed or failed within your test will be on the score report you recieve at the test centre. Should you lose or misplace your score report you can now go online and print another copy meaning you no longer have to pay the £10 duplicate fee. You can do this by logging in to the PearsonVUE portal (where you book online tests). If you need further information about printing a score report please contact testingservicesfeedback@citb.co.uk
New questions and a new style
New questions have been added to better cover the wide range of daily health, safety and environment tasks and responsibilities. So, instead of a limited variety of questions, each candidate will now get a wider selection.
A new question style has also been introduced to the Managers and Professionals (MAP) version of the test. In this new style, candidates will drag and drop the answers into the right order. This format helps test whether a candidate really knows the procedures for being safe on the job.
This new style joins the other styles that were added to the test over the last year. You can see a preview of these new styles on our sample questions platform by using the button below.
Please note that the questions platform is not a practice test and no score will be given when you try to answer a question.
Clearer instructions
Test centres reported that many workers struggled with the instructions on how to use the test equipment. We’ve now improved the on-screen tutorial so that candidates can learn how to operate the equipment during the test.
Materials to revise, not memorise
Revision materials, such as DVDs, books, downloads and apps, have all been updated alongside changes to the HS&E test. In the operatives version, we’ve replaced some questions and answers with short explanatory text and included more diagrams to make it easier for candidates to prepare and revise for the test.
The updated revision materials are now available to purchase from the CITB Shop. For all tests from 26 June onwards candidates require the 2019 versions of the revision materials.
These updates have been designed to help workers learn and be able to practise health and safety. When a worker passes the test, it should be because they know and practise safe working, not because they’ve memorised the answers but don’t really know how to be safe on the job.
The updated revision materials are now available to purchase and download from the CITB Shop.
Example page from updated revision materials showing new content format.
Example page from updated revision materials showing new diagrams to revise with.