CDM Regulations 2007 - A Guide
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
by
Ian McCann
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 revoke and replace the CDM Regulations 1994 and revoke and re-enact (with modifications) the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996. They apply to persons acting in the course or furtherance of a trade or business. Most significantly, the new Regulations impose increased duties for businesses and replace the Planning Supervisor with the CDM Co-ordinator.
The main effects for businesses are:-
- a business cannot appoint an agent to act on it’s behalf and must comply and ensure compliance with the new Regulations themselves;
- they must ensure their appointees are competent (this means that they have to carry out reasonable enquiries to assess this);
- they must ensure co-operation and co-ordination between themselves and their various appointees;
- they must ensure arrangements are made for the safe management of the project;
- they must provide information timeously;
- they must ensure a Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan is prepared and complied with; and
- they must appoint a CDM Co-ordinator (this was the party previously known as the Planning Supervisor) and ensure that he is provided with all applicable Health and Safety information.
The CDM Co-ordinator (formerly Planning Supervisor) is given an enhanced role in the Project. In particular, the CDM Co-ordinator is required to advise and assist businesses on the competence, capability and resources of others which was an optional service under previous regulations. Furthermore, the CDM Co-ordinator will now also be required to coordinate the design and include a buildability/maintainability/usability review.
Designers (as defined under the Regulations) are also subject to more stringent requirements on competence, safety and design and co-operation and co-ordination of design work.
Contractors seem to have relatively ‘lucked out’ under the new Regulations as their duties remain pretty much as they were under the previous regulations, albeit with increased emphasis on safety management, welfare and competence of their own team.
Notifiable Projects : As before projects lasting for more than 30 days or involving more than 500 person days are notifiable to the Health and Safety Executive. If the project is notifiable, the business must appoint a CDM Co-ordinator, as soon as practicable after the initial design work or other preparation for construction work has begun, who is responsible for the notification. After appointing the CDM Co-ordinator, a business must appoint a principal contractor. If neither of these is appointed, it will be assumed that they have taken on these roles themselves.
The Regulations also apply to projects started before the Regulations came into force. A business has to appoint a CDM Co-ordinator and principal contractor as soon as is reasonably practicable.
Where a planning supervisor or principal contractor has already been appointed the business has, within 12 months, to take reasonable steps to ensure that they are competent. Any planning supervisor or principal contractor shall be treated for the purposes of the new Regulations as CDM Co-ordinator and principal contractor respectively.
Any agent appointed under the 1994 Regulations is permitted to continue acting as such until such time as his appointment is revoked, or the project ends or 5 years from 6 April 2007, whichever is sooner.
The HSE has issued an Approved Code of Practice (AcoP) to help businesses assess their new duties, including a two-stage process by which they can assess the competency of their workforce (i.e. the designers and contractors). The Code of Practice can be purchased through the HSE website by clicking on this link: http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l144.htm