Changes to the Construction, Design and Management Regulations which came into force on 6th April last year, may now be an integral part of UK construction life, but many organisations still remain blissfully ignorant as to their on-going legal obligations.
That’s the view of HBPW Geoenvironmental Engineer, Jay Fox.
“Originally introduced in 1994 as part of a European Directive, the CDM Regulations – which were substantially reviewed in 2007 – set out what people involved in construction work needed to do to protect themselves from harm and anyone affected by their work,” said Jay.
But industry professionals subsequently complained that the 2007 review, aimed at making things simpler, failed despite the Health & Safety Executive proving that the number of fatalities and injuries fell after the 2007 overhaul. Consequently another two year review, one of the largest post-implementation evaluations of any set of regulations in the Executive’s history, began.
The resulting recommendations now form the basis of the revised regulations that came into force last year. “The HSE evaluation produced some interesting results,” said Jay, “concluding that there was a tendency for those involved to misunderstand or over-interpret the original regulations, it felt the industry approach to assessing competency needed revising and confirmed that red tape still remained firmly in place!
“In short, whilst the evaluation reported that the 2007 Regulations were broadly fit for purpose, the Executive also indicated that certain processes needed simplifying, the Regulations needed re-aligning with EU Directives, the definition of ‘Client’ needed expanding and there needed to be changes as to when key duty holders were appointed.
“However, subsequent amends took immediate effect and, because there has been no extended transition period, the HSE changes became law from day one, applying to both existing and future projects. Many organisations appear to have missed this whilst others most likely remain blissfully unaware that any change has even taken place” said Jay.
He said that companies and key individuals needed to be familiar with the changes if they were to avoid prosecution.
One of the most fundamental of the changes saw the introduction of a new role of Principal Designer and removal of the CDM co-ordinator (CDM-C) role, splitting the responsibilities into two parts. The Principal Designer is now responsible for health and safety on projects until the construction phase, at which point the Principal Contractor takes on the CDM-C responsibilities.
“The resulting changes to CDM 2007 is having a fundamental impact on the way businesses manage projects going forward, from small scale refurbishments to larger scale base builds or demolition projects.
“Individuals and organisations involved in commissioning and completing construction work need to be up to speed if they are to correctly comply with the regulations. The inspection approach the HSE takes from now on remains to be seen, but conceivably those companies failing to comply could find themselves in hot water,” added Jay.
For further details contact Jay Fox by email on jay.fox@hbpwconsulting.co.uk