Brief for Federations/ Industry Partners

Changes to Construction Design and Management Regulations: Update 7Jan2015

HSE has advised us that, subject to parliamentary approval, new Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) will come into force on 6th April 2015.

  1. Industry Guidance
Industry Guidance documents will be available from Friday 9th January to download from:
These will provide draft guidance on the legal requirements of CDM 2015, and written with SMEs/ smaller projects in mind.
They are being made available before the Regulations come into force on 6 April, to help anyone who has duties under the Regulations to prepare in advance.
Note: This guidance will be subject to some changes while the Regulations are awaiting Parliamentary approval.
The series of industry guides for the five duty holders under CDM and one for workers, that set out, in practical terms, what actions are required of them to deliver a safe and healthy construction project:
Client
Designer
Principal designer
Principal contractor
Contractor
Worker
  1. Regulations and HSE ‘L’ series guidance
  • The new Regulations and supporting ‘L’ series guidance will be available from Friday 9th January and can be found at or on the HSE’s construction pages:
  • Like the Industry Guidance these will be in draft format and will be subject to amends.
  1. Key Changes
HSE are advising the key changes to be:
  • Principal designer. The replacement of CDM co-ordinator (under CDM2007) by principal designer. This means that the coordination of the pre-construction phase – which is crucial to the management of any successful construction project – will be performed by an existing member of the design team.
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  • Client. The revised/new Regulations recognise the influence and importance of the client as the head of the supply chain and the one best placed to set standards.
  • Competence. By splitting ‘competence’ into its component parts of skills, knowledge, training and experience, and - if they are an organisation - organisational capability, provides clarity for the industry to assess and demonstrate that construction project teams have the right attributes to deliver a healthy and safe project.
  • The technical standards set out in part 4 remain unchanged from CDM2007 and HSE’s targeting and enforcement policy, as a proportionate and modern regulator, also remains unchanged.
  1. Main Transitional Arrangements
  • The transitional period will run for 6 months from April 6th 2015 to October 6th 2015.
  • For projects starting before6th April 2015 where the client has not yet appointed a CDM co-ordinator, the client must appoint a principal designer as soon as it is practicable.
  • If the CDM co-ordinator has already been appointed, a principal designer must be appointed to replace the CDM co-ordinator within 6 months, that is, by 6 October 2015.
  • In the period it takes to appoint the principal designer, the appointed CDM co-ordinator should comply with the duties contained in Schedule 4 to the Regulations. These duties reflects the existing requirements for the CDM co-ordinator rather than requiring CDM co-ordinators to act as principal designers, a role for which they may not be equipped.
  1. ACOP
HSE will be seeking industry views during 2015 (not a formal consultation) on the new ACOP supporting CDM 2015.
Further information from: Fiona Wilson, Marketing Manager, CITB. .

7Jan15