New CDM Changes - A Complete Overhaul!!

The new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 come into force on 6 April 2015. These regulations will apply immediately apart from the transitional period of six months for the newly created role of principal designer, which replaces the now defunct role of the CDM-Co-ordinator. The client role remains much the same with CDM regulations 2015 as it did with the 2007 regulations, but with some significant additions. First, the regulations now include a duty on the ‘domestic’ client, however, a domestic client will be unaware of these duties; therefore by default, the duty on the domestic client will fall to the contractor where there is only one contractor or, where there is more than one contractor, the principal contractor or principal designer where there is a written agreement. The threshold for notification to HSE has changed from 30 days or 500 person days to include more than 30 days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously; or exceed 500 person days. The role of the CDM-Co-ordinator has now been terminated – a role which was originally conceived by HSE and previously known as the planning supervisor in the 1994 regulations. In the main, the duties conferred on the CDM-Co-ordinator fall to a new role of principal designer. For example, the health and safety file for the project must be prepared by the principal designer during the pre-construction phase, reviewed, updated and revised during the course of the project and passed to the client at the end of the project. The appointment of a principal designer only applies where there is more than one contractor, or if it is reasonably foreseeable that more than one contractor will be working on the project at any time – which again is most of the time. If the client fails to appoint a principal designer, then the client must fulfil the duties of the principal designer. The ‘competence’ requirement in CDM 2007 has been removed and replaced in the 2015 regulations with: ‘The necessary skills, knowledge, training and experience’ – the four elements of competence, which some would argue to be nothing more than semantics. Overall the changes are quite significant and far-reaching with regards to the duties of all contractors, whether that is working on commercial or domestic projects for one day or for 6 months. The contractor working for Mrs Jones, plastering an internal wall, which will take 2 days, will still have to complete a construction phase plan, there is no escaping the new regulations and ignorance is no defence! We have published a CDM Awareness Course for the new Regulations and we will also be updating the relevant software packages associated with CDM, so please keep an eye out for our newsletters and flyers as we will keep you as up-to-date as we can.

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