The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 apply to all construction works and place various duties on the different ”duty holders” involved within the construction process.

If you are involved in procuring or designing a project as a client or an architect or designer or employed to build a project you are likely to be one of these ”Duty Holders”.

Named Duty Holders on smaller, non notifiable projects are Clients, Designers, and Contractors.  Non-notifiable projects are described as those which will last less than 30 days and have less than 20 persons on site at any time or last less than 500 man days.  Larger, notifiable projects which exceed these criteria must be notified to the HSE affersafety can help and guide you through this process.

Client

If you are a Client on a construction project it is your duty to formally appoint a Principal Designer and a Principal Contractor if the project is expected to exceed 30 days with more than 20 persons on site or 500 man days.  affersafety can assist with this process in addition to all the other duties imposed on a Client.

Additionally if you, as a Client do not make these appointments you will be responsible for carrying out the duties of these duty holders yourself.  To find out if you need to make these appointments or not, contact affersafety.

Client Duties include:-

Make suitable arrangements for managing a project. This includes making sure:

• other duty holders are appointed
• sufficient time and resources are allocated
• relevant information is prepared and provided to other duty holders
• the principal designer and principal contractor carry out their duties
• welfare facilities are provided.

affersafety can help Clients fulfil their duties!

Principal Designer

One of the main duty holders involved early on in a notifiable project is the Principal Designer. In liaison with the client and principal contractor, the principal designer has an important role in influencing how the risks to health and safety should be managed and incorporated into the wider management of a project. Decisions about the design taken during the pre-construction phase can have a significant effect on whether the project is delivered in a way that secures health and safety.

The principal designer’s role involves co-ordinating the work of others in the project team to ensure that significant and foreseeable risks are managed throughout the design process.

Principal Designer Duties include:-

Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase of a project. This includes:

• identifying, eliminating or controlling foreseeable risks;
• ensuring designers carry out their duties;

Prepare and provide relevant information to other duty holders

Liaise with the principal contractor to help in the planning, management, monitoring and coordination of the construction phase.

affersafety can help Principal Designers (PD) fulfil their duties!

Principal Contractors

Principal Contractors are defined in the 2015 CDM Regulations as ‘…contractors appointed by the client to coordinate the construction phase of a project where it involves more than one contractor.  They must possess the skills, knowledge, and experience, and (if an organisation) the organisational capability necessary to carry out their role effectively given the scale and complexity of the project and the nature of the health and safety risks involved’.

For projects involving more than one contractor, the client must appoint a principal contractor as soon as practicable, and before the start of the construction phase, so they have enough time to plan and manage the construction phase.  Principal Contractors are responsible for health and safety during the construction phase and have an extensive range of duties to ensure that this is undertaken effectively.

Principal Contractor are required to:-

• Not start work on any project unless they are satisfied that the client they are working for is aware of their duties under CDM2015.
• Contractors must plan, manage and monitor construction work carried out by themselves or by workers under their control to ensure that it is carried out without risks to health and safety, so far as is reasonably practicable.
• Where there is more than one contractor working on a project, the contractor must:-
  • Comply with any directions given by the Principal Contractor (PC).
  • Comply with the parts of the Construction Phase Plan (CPP) that applies to their work.
• If there is only one contractor on site they must take account of the general Principles of Prevention when:-
  • Design, technical and organisational aspects of the job are being decided in order to plan the various aspects of the job taking place simultaneously or in succession.
  • Estimating the time needed to complete the work or work stages.
• If there is one contractor working on the job, the contractor must draw up a CPP, or make arrangements for a CPP to be drawn up before setting up the site.
• The CPP must fulfil the requirements of Regulation 12(2).
• A contractor must not employ someone to work on the site unless that person has, or is in the process of obtaining, the necessary skills, knowledge, training and experience to carry out the tasks allocated to them in a manner that secures the safety and health of any person working on the site.
• Contractors must provide each worker under their control with appropriate supervision, instructions and information so that the work can be carried out without risks to health and safety so far as is reasonably practicable.
• Information provided must include:-
  • Site induction if not provided by the PC
  • Procedure to be followed in the event of serious or imminent danger to health and safety.
  • Information on risks to health and safety:-
    • Identified by the risk assessments.
    • Arising from the conduct of another contractor’s activities on the site which the contractor ought to reasonably be aware of.
  • Any other relevant information necessary to enable the worker to comply with the relevant statutory provisions.
• Contractors must not start work on site until reasonable steps have been taken to prevent access by unauthorised persons to that site.
• Contractors must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, that all welfare requirements are complied with so far as they affect the contractor or any worker under his control.

affersafety can help Principal Contractors fulfil their duties!

affersafety are competent in assisting Clients, Principal Desingers and Pricipal Contractors fulfil their respective roles on notifiable projects.  With our in-house expertise we can advise on the various aspects of the Construction process. 

In addition to this service we can also carry out on site safety inspections, scaffold inspection, accident analysis and preparation of full clear & concise reports.

We are there with you every step of the way through the project to offer guidance, support & advice. For further information phone 07968 381 445 or email on info@affersafety.co.uk

CDM 15 Regualtions (27kb)