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CDM Project Management

The Construction Design and Management Regulations (better known as the CDM Regulations) were re-introduced in April, 2007. The revised Regulations have been implemented to make it easier for those involved in construction projects to comply with health and safety requirements.

CDM Regulations

The CDM Regulations have been targeted to improve the overall management and co-ordination of health, safety and welfare throughout all aspects of construction projects to reduce the number of serious accidents and cases of ill health which happen every year in the industry. The HSE emphasise that the new regulations, planning and management secure a safe project, rather than paperwork.

Duties & Regulations

The Regulations place duties on all personnel who can contribute to the health and safety of a construction or refurbishment project. Duties are placed upon designers, clients and contractors with more power given to the CDM Coordinator in what is considered a more authoritative and policing role.

The new regulations combine the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations (1996) and CDM 1994 into one set of regulations.  However, they also introduce some important changes to the health and safety regime.

These include:

• A new duty on designers to eliminate hazards and reduce risks, to ensure that any workplace they design complies with the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992; as far as is reasonably practicable.
• A Client is no longer able to appoint an agent to take on their legal duties and criminal liabilities, making the CDM Coordinator role more advisory in helping to accomplish their duties to comply with the Regulations
• When Principal Contractors assign contractors, they will have to tell those contractors how much time they have to arrange for on-site work;
• Contractors will have a similar duty towards those they appoint to work on-site, as well as being required to plan and manage their own work;
• The role of Planning Supervisor, which carried responsibility for co-ordinating health and safety aspects of the design and the planning phase of the construction project, is to be replaced by a CDM Project Co-ordinator.

A CDM Co-ordinator, like a Planning Supervisor, has to be appointed by the client if a project lasts more than 30 days or covers more than 500 person days of work.  But, unlike the Planning Supervisor, is required to advise and assist the client on how to fulfil their duties, especially on whether other duty-holders' arrangements are adequate.  At the most, only the initial design work for the job should have been completed before the position is filled.