How will the new CDM Regulations impact you?

Anyone working in the construction industry should be familiar with the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations. They place legal duties on almost everyone involved in construction work. By assigning responsibility and establishing guidelines for safe work, the CDM Regulations help improve on-site health and safety to ensure that employees are competent and support the company’s risk management strategies.

Recent changes in health and safety legislation have meant that the CDM 2007 has been superseded by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 which came into force on 6 April 2015. It applies to all construction work in Great Britain and also to domestic projects, although domestic clients do not necessarily have the same duties and a commercial client.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), who are responsible for enforcing the CDM regulations, believe that the new regulations will simplify the existing ones, reduce paperwork and improve the health and safety standards on smaller construction sites.

Neglecting to familiarise yourself with the changes could be disastrous as non-compliance increases your employees’ chances of suffering an accident, threatens the integrity of your finished structure , and generates fines and could even lead to prosecution. 

The relevant changes include:

• The CDM co-ordinator role has now been abolished. The principal designer is now responsible for co-ordinating the pre-construction phase.
• The client now has more responsibility including notifying the HSE if on-site construction work will exceed 30 working days and have more than 20 employees working simultaneously or if the project will exceed 50 working days. For the first time people having construction work carried out on their own home will have responsibilities under the new CDM regulations.
• Clients must now ensure that their contractors provide written Construction Phase Plans before the start of any work. This also applies to smaller and domestic projects which were previously exempt from the CDM regulations.

Discover our construction insurance to ensure you are fully protected. For more information on the CDM Regulations 2015 and how to comply with them visit the Health and Safety Executive website.