Construction Awareness

31 December 2006

We are continuing to support HSE, by publicising their Health & Safety in the Construction Industry pages. This is part of our remit to improve health & safety in the construction industry with audited management information systems.

Summary of Proposed Changes

May 2006

Callsafe Services have provided the following summary of the proposed changes to the CDM Regulations for you to download.

Summary of Proposed Changes to the CDM Regulations (53KB)

Principal Changes

The main changes for the existing regulations are summarised as follows;

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 (amended 2000) and the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 will be amalgamated into one set of regulations entitled the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2006.
The new CDM regulations will apply to ALL construction work, but will only require the appointment of a "Coordinator" and "Principal Contractor" if the project is notifiable (Involving over 30 working days/shifts or over 500 person days/shifts).
A Construction Health and Safety Plan will only be required if the project is notifiable, involves significant structural demolition or is of significant risk.
The Pre-tender Health and Safety Plan is re-named the "Information Pack", which must be supplied to the designers and contractors for all construction work.
The "Planning Supervisor" becomes the "Co-ordinator", with more responsibilities and power, and a specific duty to advise, assist and educate the client.
The client will no longer be able to transfer the client's legal obligations to a "client's agent" as this role ceases to exist. This was always an idiosyncrasy of the current regulations as in all other health and safety law it is not possible to transfer legal obligations by contract.
The client will have a specific legal obligation under the new regulations to monitor the management arrangements of the project, throughout the duration of the project.
The design will have to address the health and safety aspects of the use of what is being designed, which was not included within the requirements of the existing regulations. The existing CDM regulations only require the designer, and planning supervisor, to address construction, maintenance, repair, commissioning, de-commissioning, testing, demolition, dismantling and cleaning risks.

For further details, please view the full summary:

Summary of Proposed Changes to the CDM Regulations (53KB)

CDM Regulations Update

December 2005

On 6 December the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) decided that HSE should produce a 'shortish' Approved Code of Practice (ACoP), but that guidance should be produced by industry and, possibly, endorsed by HSC/E. (An ACoP contains practical guidance on how to comply with Regulations, it would not include the interpretation, best practice or 'sales pitch' that you find in the draft guidance - as included in the Consultative Document.)

Work on the analysis of the responses, etc. has been delayed as the result of an enquiry from the European Commission about the way we implement aspects of the European Directive that underpins much of our existing and proposed construction regulations. Preparing this reply is quite time consuming, but the exercise is useful in helping us to make sure that we properly implement the Directive. It is impossible to predict the outcome or extent of the delay at present, but most of the possible changes are minor.

The paper that HSC considered at their meeting on 6 December is available at http://www.hse.gov.uk/aboutus/hsc/meetings/2005/061205/c123.pdf and provides further information about these issues.<< Useful interesting document!!

Before Christmas I hope to post an outline of the key changes proposed to the draft regulations in the light of the comments that we have received (Look in the documents section at http://webcommunities.hse.gov.uk/.../cdm2006/). At the same time I also hope to post an initial statistical analysis of the responses to the easy questions. Later, probably in late January or early February, we will publish the full, anonymised responses to the Consultative Document along with a summary.

And its good-bye from him!

I want to close with a personal note. After about 5 years of work on CDM, starting with the revision of the ACoP, I am moving on to another job in HSE's Construction Division. I had hoped to complete the revision of the Regs, but the latest delays have made that impossible. (Who said: "Typical government construction project!") Richard Boland will formally take over responsibility at the end of the month. We are working together to make the transition a smooth one.

Its been an interesting time and I really appreciate all of the support and helpful advice that so many of you have given me. I hope that the new regulations, when they finally appear, encourage people to invest in teamwork and the planning and management of projects. I am convinced that this will reap dividends - not only in health and safety terms, but also in increased profitability.

-- Stephen Wright

Working at Height Regulations 2005

April 2005

The new Working at Height Regulations have revoked the working at height parts of the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996. These regulations are now applicable to all places of work.

An extract from our new knowledge base entry about the Working at Height Regulations is available here; this entry has been included in the latest Service Pack of our ToolKit CS™ software.

HSE Inspections

February 2005

The HSE are planning a nation-wide blitz throughout March. Inspectors will be visiting construction sites to assess standards of management of health hazards on site. The information in the PDF document below sets out what inspectors will be looking for and sources of further guidance on individual topics.

Healthy Handling 2005 - HSE Advice (1.6MB)

CDM Regulations Update

Stephen Wright, HSE Head of Construction Policy - Legislation, HSE
January 2005

Stephen Wright gave a presentation at the Chiltern Branch IOSH meeting on 20th January 2005. Below is a summary of the main details. You can also download a copy of his presentation from our Powerpoint Presentations download page.

Timings

CONIAC have agreed the consultative document
March/April 2005 proposals to go to the HSC
April/July 2005 consultative document made available
October 2006 new regulations

Summary

The new regulations will merge with the CHSW regulations of 1996.

The name of Planning Supervisor will disappear and become Co-ordinator. Their role will be to support and educate the client and to co-ordinate the design phase. The emphasis will be on management and monitoring. The role will have teeth and the co-ordinator will need to be appointed early on.

There will be 5 key areas for change;

Planning and Management
More emphasis on the client to ensure suitable management arrangements are in place. The co-ordinator will support the client and co-ordinate and monitor the design phase. The principal contractor will plan and manage the construction phase and contractors will manage their own work.
Communication
There will be no regulation to say there has to be a pre-tender health and safety plan. The emphasis will be upon getting the right information to the right people at the right time. The focus will be upon avoiding bureaucracy and mountains of paper but communicating effectively with all parties involved including the workers on site. The health and safety file should be linked with the Building Regulations log book.
Scope
The new regulations will apply to all construction work as all work needs to be properly managed. If demolition is involved there needs to be a written system of work (method statement) This will always need to be written down.
Clarify Designers Duties
The designer needs to accept the balance between Health & Safety and other reasonable design creations and avoid risks by their design rather than in the construction process.
Involvement of Workforce
The principal contractor must consult with their workforce.

Please download a copy of Stephen Wright's presentation here.

Selection of Designers and Contractors

Developing guidelines for the selection of Designers and Contractors under the CDM Regulations.

HSE has commissioned a research study on this topic. It is intended to ascertain the current position in respect of the 'competence and resource' requirements of the CDM Regulations (Reg 8&9) and to propose changes for the future. The study is part of the overall review of the regulations which is currently underway.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdmguides.htm

Designers Can Do More

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) are 10 years old – but despite time, effort, money and forests of paper there is plenty of evidence that the designer aspects are still not working well.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/designers/