CDM 2015 places greater responsibility on clients for the conduct and decisions of the people they employ to oversee health and safety.
Under the CDM shake-up, there will no longer be an official role of CDM coordinator. Instead, clients will need to appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor to fulfil their duties.
Health and safety chiefs have given the industry six months grace to switch over to the new CDM regulations on existing projects.
This means that any projects that started before 6 April will have until 6 October to appoint a principal designer.
During the transition, any pre-construction information pack or construction phase plan provided to the requirements of CDM 2007 will satisfy the new requirements of CDM 2015.
Projects starting from now on will work under the new structure from the outset.
The new regulations recognise the influence and importance of the client as the head of the supply chain and that they are best placed to set standards throughout a project.
Now, construction clients are required by law to meet several requirements in ensuring health and safety on construction projects.
They must:
- assemble a competent professional team and ensure that the roles of team members are clear
- ensure sufficient time and resources are allocated at appropriate stages of the project to adequately and appropriately deal with health and safety issues
- ensure that there are effective mechanisms in place for project team communication and that they work.
- provide suitable welfare facilities for the duration of the construction work.
When a client delegates these responsibilities to a professional team or contractor, it must ensure they have the skill, training, expertise and capacity to carry these out.
If the wrong firm is appointed, responsibility may fall on the client.
