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The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM2015) came into effect on 6 April 2015. These make significant changes to the CDM Regulations and apply to all construction projects in Great Britain. Transitional arrangements apply between 6 April 2015 and 6 October 2015, where a project was started before 6 April 2015. Previously, there were exclusions for small projects or domestic projects but these no longer apply. They also apply to offshore installations such as wind farm projects. The only exclusion relates to mineral extraction.
There is a change of focus with regard to responsibility in CDM 2015; more responsibility is placed upon the client to ensure that the construction work can be carried out safely.
The client must ensure:
‘Contractors’ includes sub-contractors in this definition. Most projects will require a principal designer and principal contractor, and these must be appointed before the construction phase begins.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has to be notified of projects where construction work is to last longer than 30 working days and has more than 20 workers on site at any point, or where construction work is to exceed 500 person days. Notification has to be made by the client rather than the principal designer.
CDM 2015 applies to domestic clients and so would include people having extensions carried out on their homes. A domestic client has to provide a safe site for the work, although many of the other duties are transferred to the principal contractor. Also, if not formally appointed, the principal designer and principal contractor are automatically appointed, depending on the work they are carrying out.
The duties of the principal designer are to:
The duties of a principal contractor are to:
Other parties engaged on the site have duties relating to health and safety on the construction work site. These are considerably more detailed and anyone working on a site should be familiar with them. It should be remembered that CDM 2015 is enforced by the HSE by way of criminal proceedings against those in breach.
Peter Allen
01245 453813
peter.allen@birkettlong.co.uk
There is a change of focus with regard to responsibility in CDM 2015; more responsibility is placed upon the client to ensure that the construction work can be carried out safely.