• Services

Summary of the dutyholders main responsibilities and duties

Client

A client has responsibility to make suitable arrangements for managing a project.  This includes making sure that:

  • other duty holders are appointed
  • sufficient time and resources are allocated
  • relevant information is prepared and provided to other duty holders
  • the principal designer and principal contractor carry out their duties
  • welfare facilities are provided.

Domestic Clients

They are included in the new CDM 2015 Regulations, but their duties as a client are normally transferred to:

  • the contractor on a single contractor project, or
  • the Principal Contractor on a project involving more than one contractor.

The domestic client can choose to have a written agreement with the Principal Designer (PD) to carry out the client duties.

Domestic clients should read the HSE’s guidance called ‘Need building work done?’

Designer

The designer’s role when preparing or modifying designs is to eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable risks that may happen during construction or maintenance and use of a building after it’s been built.

The designer also provides information to other members of the project team to help them fulfil their duties.

Principal Designer (PD)

The Principal Designer (PD) is responsible for planning, managing, monitoring and coordinating Health & Safety (H&S) in the pre-construction phase of a project. This includes:

  • identifying, eliminating or controlling foreseeable risks
  • ensuring designers carry out their duties.
  • preparing and providing relevant information to other dutyholders.

The PD also liaises with the principal contractor to help in the planning, management and monitoring of the health and safety in the construction phase.

Contractor

Anyone who directly engages construction workers or manages construction work is a contractor.  This includes companies that use their own workforce to do the work on their premises and duties apply to all workers be they employees, self-employed or agency workers.  The contractor’s duty is to:

  • plan, manage and monitor construction work under their control so that it is carried out without risks to health and safety.
  • for projects involving more than one contractor, co-ordinate their activities with others in the project team – in particular, comply with directions given to them by the Principal Designer or Principal Contractor.
  • for single contractor projects, prepare a construction phase plan.

Principal Contractors (PC)

The Principal Contractor’s (PC) duty is to:

  • plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the construction phase of a project
  • liaise with the client and principal designer
  • prepare the construction phase plan
  • organise cooperation between contractors and coordinate their work.

Ensure:

  • suitable site inductions are provided
  • reasonable steps are taken to prevent unauthorised access
  • workers are consulted and engaged in health and safety matters
  • welfare facilities are provided

Workers

As people working for or under the control of contactors on a construction site the workers have duties as well as their employers.  Workers must:

  • be consulted about matters which affect their health, safety and welfare
  • take care of their own health and safety and others who may be affected by their actions
  • report anything they see which is likely to endanger either their own or others’ health and safety
  • cooperate with their employer, fellow workers, contractors and other duty holders.

Construction Phase H&S Plan (CPHSP)

If you are a business who conducts construction or construction related work as defined on page one of this newsletter, a CPHSP MUST be produced when you undertake any jobs when:

  • You are the only contractor involved, or
  • You are acting as the Principal Contractor.

When and Why is a construction project notifiable?

A project is notifiable under Regulation 6 of CDM 2015 to the HSE, if the work is expected or scheduled to:

  • Last longer than 30 working days andhave more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project, or
  • Exceed 500 person days.

The client is required to send the notification.  The only exception is when the client is a ‘domestic client’, where the responsibility automatically passes to the Contractor (or PC) where there is more than one contractor involved.  The PD can assume responsibility of a domestic project, but only where there is written agreement with the domestic client.

The Health & Safety (H&S) file

The H&S file is only required for projects involving more than one contractor.

The Principal Designer (PD) prepares, reviews, updates and revises it as the project progresses.  If the PD’s appointment continues to the end of the project, they must also pass the completed file to the Client.  If the PD’s appointment finishes before the end of the project, the file must be passed to the Principal Contractor (PC) for the remainder of the project.  The PC then takes responsibility the until the project finishes and the file is passed to the Client.

The H&S file must contain relevant information about the project and be used if any construction work is carried out on the building in the future to plan and carry out work safely and without risks to health.

The H&S file is a record of useful information to help the ‘Client’ manage H&S risks during any future maintenance, repair, construction work or demolition.  The ‘Client’ should keep the file safe, make it available to anyone who needs to alter or maintain the building, and update it if any circumstances change.

CDM 2015 construction work definition

CDM 2015 defines construction work as; carrying out of any building, civil engineering or engineering construction work and includes:

  1. The 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 or dismantling of a structure;
  2. The preparation for an intended structure, including site clearance, exploration, investigation (but not site survey) and excavation, and the clearance or preparation of the site or structure for use or occupation at its conclusion;
  3. The assembly on site of prefabricated elements to form a structure or the disassembly on site of prefabricated elements which, immediately before such disassembly, formed a structure;
  4. The removal of a structure or of any product or waste resulting from demolition or dismantling of a structure or from disassembly of prefabricated elements which immediately before such disassembly formed such a structure; and
  5. The 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.

Industry Guidance

For additional information about specific ‘dutyholder’ responsibilities, please see:

Competent construction H&S advice

Services – Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSiP)

What is SSIP Accreditation?

SSIP Accreditation is an umbrella body for Health and Safety accreditation schemes such as CHAS, Constructionline, Safe Contractor, SMAS, Acclaim and others. Once accredited with an individual SSIP member you fulfil the requirements for joining any of the other member schemes saving you time and money if you need to join other SSIP schemes.

When you might need SSIP Accreditation

  • You won a contract and need to be accredited before being allowed on site?
  • You need to provide evidence of having access to a health and safety Competent Person?
  • You are struggling with providing the evidence requested by the accreditation body?
  • Have you already applied for accreditation and been rejected?

Many potential clients now ask for accreditation as part of the tendering process or worse still, you’ve won a contract and then realise you need to be accredited before your client lets you on site. This need to demonstrate credibility goes higher up the chain too as your clients need to show their clients that they are employing competent sub-contractors vetted to a SSIP standards.

The Benefits of SSIP Accreditation

A clear benefit of becoming SSIP accredited is to increase the amount of business you win. When clients are looking for contactors, a stamp of approval from a participating SSIP scheme improves your credibility by demonstrating the competency of your organisation – it’s like presenting qualifications and a good CV in order to get a new job.

Once you become accredited with one SSIP member scheme, the requirements for entry into other SSIP schemes will already have been met as the required processes and documentation are already in place. This makes it easier to win more business as your future tendering processes will be quicker and simpler.

Outsourcing the accreditation process also improves productivity by saving you time and money and therefore speeding up future tenders.

Why use RS Safety Management Ltd for application?

We start by carrying out a gap analysis. This identifies current processes and documentation that are already acceptable or highlights any issues that we feel could potentially lead to a failed application. This means you only pay for the level of service you need rather than us selling you an inclusive package or a simple submission only package that doesn’t correct any of the failings.

Once any failings have been identified, we will work with you to correct those failings and will support you throughout the whole process to maximise our chances of success.

When you use RS Safety Management Ltd  to apply for CHAS, Constructionline, Safe Contractor or any other SSIP accredited scheme, we will work with you from start to finish to understand the individual needs of your business and provide a bespoke solution to maximise the chances of a successful application.