Carrying out building works? Be careful to comply with CDM Regulations 2015

Posted 27/10/2015

Many development clients are already aware of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 which had far reaching implications for clients instructing development work as well as traditional clients.These were replaced in April 2015 in an attempt to make them easier to understand and to bring them in line with the requirements of the EU Directive and apply the regulations to domestic clients.

What are the duties? For commercial clients, you must make suitable arrangements for managing the project and enable those carrying out works to manage health and safety risks proportionately.This would include making sure your professional team have the skills experience and capability to carry out the role you have appointed for and that you have allowed sufficient time and resources for the project, ensure that your principal designer and contractor are carrying out their duties and making sure that suitable welfare facilities are provided for the duration of the work.You must continually maintain and review management arrangements, provide pre-construction information to designer and contractors, ensure that the contractor prepares a construction phase plan before that phase begins and ensure that a health and safety file is prepared and updates as necessary. If the planned construction work is due to last longer than 30 working days or involves more than 20 workers at one time clients must notify the Health and Safety Executive in writing with the details of the project and display this notification in the site office, this would be known is a notifiable project.

What about domestic clients? Domestic clients are also caught by the requirements of the act, this would cover people who have construction work carried out on their own home or the home of a family member that is not carried out as part of a business. It would not cover those who were carrying out work themselves which would be classed as DIY. Generally, their client duties are transferred to the contractor or principal contractor although a domestic client can instead choose to have a written agreement with the principal designer to carry out the client duties. If a project is “notifiable” as specified above, the client would need to ensure that the relevant procedure had been followed.

What are the consequences for failing to comply? The Health and Safety Executive are the enforcement agency and can stop the development work, prosecute or issue improvement notices. It is a criminal offence to breach these regulations.

If you have any queries about your duties under the new Regulations or require any detailed guidance please contact us through this website or call 0330 404 0749.