What are the Construction Health & Safety regulations?

What are the regulations?

Construction Health & Safety comes under various government legislation. The most important of these is the CDM (Construct Design Management) regulations. Croft is fully committed to the regulations and produces risk assessments for all projects.

What are the client requirements?

To comply with Construction Health and Safety the client must ensure they have employed suitably qualified professionals and that H&S is followed and that the client allows adequate resources.
The client should make sure the Principal designer and Principal contractor are appointed in writing.

What is a Principle Designer?

A principal designer must be appointed and during the works a principal contractor must be appointed. Before any works begin a Construction Phase Plan is required.

When do CDM Regs Apply?

In 2015 H&S regulations were updated to include domestic properties. It was long overdue that domestic properties should have the same level of safety. Employing someone to paint a wall in a domestic home is encompassed under the regulations. A domestic client must ensure that the person they employ is competent. When a project increases in size the H&S Executive will need to be informed through the issuing of an F10.

When an F10 is not needed?

An F10 is not needed if:

• the work will last 30 days or less and involve less than five people on site at any one time; or
• the work is being done for a domestic client (that is someone who lives, or will live, in the premises where the work is being done). In this case only the duties to notify HSE and those placed on designers apply. However, in some instances domestic clients may enter into an arrangement with a developer who carries on a trade, business or other activity. For example, a developer may sell domestic premises before the project is complete. The domestic client then owns the incomplete property, but the developer still arranges for the construction work to be carried out. In this case the CDM requirements apply to the developer.

The CDM Wizard app issued by the CITB is a good place to start on the health and safety requirements