Health and Safety CDM 2015

Projekt 7 & Safety

Projekt 7 Construction have CITB trained SMSTS staff and we are focused on ensuring the safety of all persons and buildings under our temporary control for the duration of the works. 

Who is responsible?

There are a few misconceptions surrounding who has responsibility for Health & Safety on a construction site. The one we come across most of all is the Client who thinks all the responsibility falls on whom ever they employ to carry out the work (the Contractor). Some clients are surprised to find out the extent of their own legal duties under the law that they must appoint, give proper time and properly fund the necessary costs relating to site safety and welfare provision prior to works being undertaken on-site.  It is deemed under UK law that the Client has a big influence on the health and safety of the project.  The Client is in control of payments, appointing the key members of the team, and influences the timeframes, deadlines and scope of the project. The time to discover how scrutiny by the authorities runs back upstream to the Client, is not after an accident has occured on site. The client is the asset/building owner and if the contractor has disappeared, that cheap contract quotation can rapidley become an expensive mistake involving penalties/fines, but criminal prosecution can follow in cases of serious injury or death, where imprisonment may ensue from the later. 

Who is the Client?

The client is defined in the CDM 2015 Regulation as "any person for whom a project is carried out". This could be a single person, a group of people, or a business. The client is usually the person instructing contractors and designers, and deciding what work will be done. Importantly, this is usually the person paying for the work to be done.

Duties of the Client

The first duty of the client under CDM 2015 is to make suitable arrangements for managing a project. This includes allocating sufficient time, resources and money. This doesn't mean the client needs to actually manage the project. But they do need to make arrangements for the management of the project and including safety.

This is broken down into a number of specific duties under CDM, including duties to:

• Make suitable arrangements.
• Allocate sufficient time and resources.
• Appoint a Principal Designer on projects with more than one contractor
• Appoint a Principal Contractor on projects with more than one contractor.
• Ensure work can be carried out without risks to health or safety.
• Make sure welfare facilities are provided.
• Ensure that arrangements are maintained and reviewed throughout the project.
• Provide pre-construction information to designers and contractors.
• Ensure the construction phase plan is drawn up by the principal contractor (or contractor if only one) before work starts.
• Make sure the principal designer prepares a health and safety file.
• Ensure that the health and safety file complies with CDM.
• Check the file is revised to incorporate relevant new information, and is kept available for inspection by any person who may need it.
• Take reasonable steps to ensure that the principal designer and principal contractor comply with their duties.
• Provide the health and safety file to any person who acquires the structure.
• Where a project is notifiable, the client must give notice in writing to the HSE. 

If an accident, occurs on site, HSE (and in the case of a death also the police) will investigate 'if' the client has taken the above steps and paid for the required health and safety cost prior to starting the works? 

• The first duty of the client under CDM 2015 is to make suitable arrangements for managing a project. This includes allocating sufficient time and other resources. This doesn't mean that clients need to actually manage the project. But they do need to make arrangements for the management of the project.
• Arrangements also include ensuring that welfare facilities are provided, and that the construction work can be carried out without risks to the health or safety of any person affected by the project.
• The client must also provide pre-construction information to every designer and contractor appointed (or being considered for appointment), to the project. This is information on the project or site they might have from the purchase, previous work, or needed for this project.

The client must appointment two key duty holders. The Principal Designer and the Principal Contractor.  Beyond appointment, the client must take reasonable steps to ensure that the Principal Designer and Principal Contractor also comply with their duties under CDM 2015.

Who is the Principal Designer

They are a specialist in Health and Safety on construction sites and should not be confused with another name for the architect.

Principal designers must:

• plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase. In doing so they must take account of relevant information (such as an existing health and safety file) that might affect design work carried out both before and after the construction phase has started.
• help and advise the client in bringing together pre-construction information, and provide the information the designers and contractors need to carry out their duties.
• work with any other designers on the project to eliminate foreseeable health and safety risks to anyone affected by the work and, where that is not possible, take steps to reduce or control those risks
• ensure that everyone involved in the pre-construction phase communicates and cooperates, coordinating their work wherever required.

The Principal Contractor

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 Duties of the Contractor.

5.—(1) A contractor must not carry out construction work in relation to a project unless satisfied that the client is aware of the duties owed by the client under these Regulations.

Principal Contractor Main Duties:

•  plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the construction phase of a project across the whole site.
• liaise with the client and principal designer.
• prepare the construction phase plan.
• organise cooperation between contractors and coordinate their wor

A good Principal Contractor will automatically ensure the client is aware of their duties and should have SMSTS trained staff to ensure the site set-up is completed in compliance with CDM 2015 and that the site continues to comply with all aspects of the regulations during the works. 

Projekt 7 Construction have CITB trained SMSTS staff and can advise clients on how to comply with their duties. 

Click Link - CITB GUIDE ON CDM 2015 - CLIENT

Click Link - CITB Guide on CDM 2015 - CONTRACTOR