Under the Industrial Training Act 1982 and consequent Levy Orders, CITB must raise a Levy Assessment on all employers wholly or mainly engaged in the construction industry.

The definition of construction industry for our purposes may differ significantly from what you imagine it to be. The activities of the construction industry are set out below.

You are "engaged wholly or mainly in construction industry activities" when construction activities take up more than half of your total employees’ time (including subcontractors).

If that is the case, you need to register your business with CITB and complete an annual Levy Return so that we can carry out a Levy assessment.

What is an employer?

For the purposes of the CITB Levy, an employer is a person or a company with one or more employees, including staff on the payroll and subcontractors.

What is an employee?

"Employee" is defined in the Industrial Training Act 1982 as including "a person engaged under a contract for services". This means that in addition to direct employees on the payroll, engaged under contracts of service, it includes subcontractors (be they individuals, firms or limited companies) engaged under contracts for services.

What is a construction industry activity?

You can find a full list of construction activities in Schedule 1 paragraph 1 of the Industrial Training (Construction Board) Order 1964 (Amendment) Order 1992 ("Scope Order"). Specific exclusions are listed at paragraph 2.

The following activities are construction activities for CITB Levy purposes.  This list is not exhaustive:

Levy legislation

CITB is required under the Industrial Training Act 1982 to raise a collect a Levy to fund its legal purpose of encouraging training in the construction industry. The power to raise the Levy and the way in which its calculated (including Levy rates and exemption thresholds) is contained in The Industrial Training Levy (Construction Industry Training Board) Order (known as a Levy Order). It also requires the Levy to be raised on employers, wholly or mainly engaged in construction industry activities, which are then defined in The Industrial Training (Construction Board) Order 1964 (Amendment) Order 1992 (known as the Scope Order).