Who the regulations apply to
CDM 2015 came into force on 6 April 2015 and applies to all construction work in Great Britain: building, civil engineering and engineering construction, from a loft conversion to a motorway. There is no lower size limit. What changes with size is whether the project must be notified to the Health and Safety Executive and whether a principal designer and principal contractor must be appointed, and those are two separate tests.
The regulations name six duty holders. A single person or organisation can hold more than one role at once: a small builder on a domestic extension is often the contractor, the principal contractor and, by default, the holder of the client’s duties as well.
The client
The client is anyone for whom a construction project is carried out. Commercial clients must make suitable arrangements for managing the project, including allowing enough time and resource, appointing the principal designer and principal contractor in writing where more than one contractor is involved, providing pre-construction information, making sure a construction phase plan is in place before work starts and that welfare facilities are provided, and ensuring the health and safety file is prepared. Where a client fails to make the appointments, the regulations make it the principal designer and principal contractor by default.
Domestic clients, people having work done on their own home, are not expected to carry these duties. Their duties pass automatically to the contractor on a single-contractor project, or to the principal contractor where there is more than one, unless the client agrees in writing that the principal designer will take them on.
The principal designer
Appointed by the client under regulation 5 for any project with more than one contractor, the principal designer must be a designer with control over the pre-construction phase. Its job is to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety before and during design: identifying and eliminating or controlling foreseeable risks, making sure designers comply with their own duties, assembling and passing on pre-construction information, and preparing the health and safety file. The role replaced the CDM coordinator of the 2007 regulations, and the change was deliberate: the person coordinating safety in design is now the person who controls the design.
The principal contractor
Appointed by the client for the same projects, the principal contractor plans, manages, monitors and coordinates the construction phase. It draws up the construction phase plan before work starts and keeps it current, organises cooperation between contractors, provides site inductions, prevents unauthorised access, consults and engages with workers, provides welfare facilities from the first day, and liaises with the principal designer for as long as that appointment runs.
Designers, contractors and workers
- Designers, anyone who prepares or modifies a design, including temporary works, must not start work unless the client is aware of its duties, and must eliminate foreseeable risks where they can, reduce or control those they cannot, and give information about the residual risks to the people who need it.
- Contractors must plan, manage and monitor their own work, not start unless there is a construction phase plan, provide their workers with appropriate supervision, information, instruction and training, and comply with the principal contractor’s directions. On a single-contractor project the contractor also prepares the construction phase plan itself.
- Workers must be consulted about matters that affect their health and safety, take care of themselves and others, cooperate with the duty holders, and report anything they see that is likely to endanger anyone.
The three documents
| Document | Who produces it | When it is required |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-construction information | The client, assembled by the principal designer | Every project: the information designers and contractors need to plan the work safely |
| Construction phase plan | The principal contractor, or the contractor on a single-contractor project | Every project, before the construction phase begins |
| Health and safety file | The principal designer, handed to the client at the end | Every project with more than one contractor |
The construction phase plan is the one most often missing on small jobs. It does not have to be long; the industry bodies publish short templates for small domestic projects. It has to be there before the work starts and it has to describe this project, not the last one.
Notification to the HSE
A project is notifiable when the construction work is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or to exceed 500 person days. The client notifies on form F10, online, as soon as practicable before the construction phase begins, and a copy is displayed in the site office. Notification is administrative: it does not change any of the duties above, which apply to the un-notified project in full.
What enforcement looks like
The HSE enforces CDM directly on construction sites and inspects unannounced. The failures that draw enforcement are predictable: no construction phase plan, no evidence of a principal designer appointment on a multi-contractor job, welfare that was never provided, and work at height with no protection in place. The Sentencing Council guideline for health and safety offences links fines to turnover and culpability, and CDM breaches are prosecuted under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 as well as the regulations themselves.