CDM Regulations

If you are considering having construction work carried out and this includes fit out or refurbishment work, then under the CDM regulations, you have legal obligations to ensure the Health and Safety of the workers and visitors to the site is managed properly.

If the scope of the project will extend to more than 30 working days or 500 person days (25 people working 20 days for example) then the Health and Safety Executive needs to be notified of the project and you need to appoint a CDM Co-ordinator to help you with the Health and Safety aspects of the project. This legal obligation stems from the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007, from where the initials CDM stem.

Other members of the project team will also have obligations under CDM, principally the designer and the main contractor, but the CDM Co0ordinator will help you make sure these roles are being fulfilled.

There are specific requirements that a CDM Co-ordinator must fulfil under the Act which can be summarised as follows:

• Give suitable and sufficient advice and assistance to clients in order to help them to comply with their duties, in particular the duty to appoint competent designers and contractors.
• Notify HSE about the project as soon as detailed design work commences.
• Co-ordinate design work, planning and other preparation for construction where relevant to health and safety.
• Identify and collect the pre-construction information and advise the client if surveys need to be commissioned to fill significant gaps.
• Promptly provide in a convenient form to those involved with the design and to every contractor (including the principal contractor) appointed by the client, such parts of the pre-construction information which are relevant to each.  
• Manage the flow of health and safety information between the project team.
• Advise the client on the suitability of the initial construction phase plan and the arrangements made to ensure that welfare facilities are on site from the start.
• Co-ordinate the production or updating of a relevant, user friendly, health and safety file suitable for future use at the end of the construction phase.