CDM Regulations 2007
A New Era of Health & Safety Mesaures in Construction
In April the construction industry saw what can be called the most significant augmentation to its Health & Safety Regulations. Following extensive consultation, the revised Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) came into force on 6th April 2007. making it easier for duty holders to comply with the requirements, they now further simplify and clarify existing Regulations.
Through a focus on managing risks on site, reducing paper work, encouraging team work and getting the right people for the right job at the right time, the implementation of these Regulations are expected to see a step change improvement in Health & Safety performance within the industry.
Although there have been considerable Health & Safety improvements within the construction sector before the revised CDM Regulations came into force, construction is still a disproportionately dangerous industry. In 2005/06, out of the 212 workers killed in workplace accidents in the UK, 59 of them were from the construction sector. A further 3,677 construction workers were reported as sufferinf a major injury at work.
So in the revised CDM Regulations, underlying all the changes is one simple aim - to reduce the unacceptable number of fatalities and injuries in the construction industry.
What do these changes to CDM really mean?
- Clients are in a position to have significant influence over their project. CDM 2007 seeks to reinforce the authority of teh client to ensure appropriate standards of Health & Safety are in place. Clients are assisted in making their key appointments by the guidance on competence.
- The role of Planning Supervisor has been replaced with a new role of CDM Co-Ordinator. The Co-Ordinator will act as teh client's key advisor for effective communication and co-ordination of Health & Safety information.
- There is emphasis on the importance of competence at all levels in securing Health & Safety benefits, whilst simplifying the assessment of competence.
- Needless paperwork and bureaucracy that had become associated with CDM 1994 has been driven out. paperwork should be project-specific, relevant, proportionate to the risk, and of real use in helping to manage the risk. If not, it is not required.
- There is clarity and simplification of when a project is notifiable. Projects will be notifiable if they will last more than 30 days or 500 person days. No projects for a domestic client will be notifiable.
With the revised CDM Regulations clients will now have a major influence on the standards of Health & Safety on the project they are procuring as part of their business or undertaking (there are no duties placed on domestic clients). While the regulations do not require clients to get involved in the management of the project, undertake site inspections, or even visit the site, what is expected of them is to ask those that they engage (such as the principal contractor), to provide reassurance that the arrangements for managing the project are suitable; to ensure that the work can be carried out safely and, that suitable provision for welfare is made.
Now CDM co-ordinatots will help clients to comply with their duties. The role of the co-ordinator is to act as the clients' key advisor, assisting on matters such as competence assessment, and co-ordinating the flow of Health & Safety information betwen client, designers, and contractors. The closer relationship betwen clients and co-ordinators should provide co-ordinators with sufficient influence to effectively perform their role on behalf of clients.
The process of assessing or demonstrating competence is streamlined and simplified, by the publication of a 'core criteria' for competence in Appendix 4 of the Approved Code of Practice, which provides examples of how to demonstrate various competencies. Some third party assessment schemes (such as Chas and National Britannia Safe Contractor) have already aligned their competence assessment process to the core criteria, and others are expected to follow suit. Consistency such as this has simplified competence assessment.
The construction industry has continued to evolve and develop under the CDM 1994 regulations. The revision of CDM will provide the construction industry with the framework to significantly reduce occupational accidents and ill health, and all dutyholders should recognise the important role they have to achieve.
For more information on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, visit www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm or call HSE's INfoline on 0845 345 0055.
If you wish to view the presentation by Jeanette Reuben of HSE, then please click here.
If you want further details of the seminars being run by the Scottish Building Federation then please go to the Events section of this site.
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