Construction Health & Safety /
Construction Design Management (CDM) Advisor

The new Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 regulations came into force on Monday 6th April 2015. The new regulations represent a significant change to the way that health and safety is managed during the pre-construction phase of projects. In particular the client will face new burdens of duties and responsibilities that were not present under the CDM 2007 edition of the regulations, with a construction phase plan now required for all projects that fall under CDM 2015.

The notification threshold has changed and there is now a greater emphasis on smaller projects with the requirement of a Principal Designer, Principal Contractor and Health and Safety Plan applying to all projects with more than one Contractor involved in a project (external or in-house). The new regulations will apply to all ‘Construction Work’ and will be notifiable to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) when they last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project or exceed 500 person days.

The CDM 2015 regulations define ‘Construction Work’:

  • Construction.
  • Alteration.
  • Conversion fitting out.
  • Commissioning.
  • Renovation.
  • Repair.
  • Upkeep.
  • Redecoration.
  • Or other maintenance (including cleaning which involves the use of water or an abrasive at high pressure, or the use of corrosive or toxic substances).
  • De-commissioning.
  • Demolition.
  • Dismantling of a structure.
  • Installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of mechanical, electrical, gas, compressed air, hydraulic, telecommunications, computer or similar services which are normally fixed within or to a structure.
  • Asbestos Survey – Refurbishment & Demolition (R&D) full intrusive survey.

The CDM 2015 Regulations definition of non ‘Construction Work’:

  • Site Surveys (assumed to be topographical / condition).
  • Asbestos Survey – Non-intrusive only.
  • Pre-construction archaeological investigations.
  • General domestic cleaning.
  • Exploration for, extraction of, mineral resources, or preparatory activities carried out at a place where exploration or extraction is carried out.
  • General maintenance of fixed plant which mainly involves mechanical adjustments, replacing parts or lubrication is unlikely to be construction work (please refer to the HSE website for further guidance).

Consultant CDM Advisors

Doig+Smith
Doig+Smith
Faithful+Gould
Faithful & Gould
Thomson Gray
Thomson Gray Ltd

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