CDM: New CDM Regulations - your thoughts?

Posted by David Brede on 10 May, 2013

nospam@nospam.com (David Brede) — Fri, 10 May 2013 21:02:30 GMT

Think this suggestion has a lot of merit. The key point is that small clients can avoid CDM regs with the compliance of the designer and builder who really don't want the interference of a H&S busy body who may point out deficiencies in their ideas. By making it conditional on building regs applications it forces their hands to engage and hopefully they will find that the CDM C adds value and saves them from making costly mistakes.

Posted by Trevor Olsson on 9 May, 2013

nospam@nospam.com (Trevor Olsson) — Thu, 09 May 2013 18:41:31 GMT

The CDM Regulations 1994 and 2006 have made major progress in safety for construction workers and others affected by the construction work; especially on larger construction projects. There is a need to get a better understanding of construction health and safety management on SME projects. The Project lead designer has always kept his distance from CDM Management partly, because of the specialist knowledge required and partially because of the numerous other tasks and duties he has to manage. The CDMC appointed directly by the Client has proved in many cases to be a critical friend who can take an overview of the project, then advise on potential design and constrution hazardous processes. Clients are generally not competent to carry out this role themselves, therefore there is a need to appoint a competent person to co-ordinate Health and Safety. There is also a need for closed co-ordination between the design Co-ordinator and the construction safety team. I have always believed the need to appoint the CDMC is critical for the design, if the Name of the CDMC had to be included on Planning Permission and Building Regulation applications, the appointment would not and could not be left untill it was too late and the CDM Regulation compliance became a paper exercise.

Posted by Ai Solutions on 9 May, 2013

nospam@nospam.com (Ai Solutions) — Thu, 09 May 2013 10:16:15 GMT

On March 13th 2013, CONIAC received a presentation from HSE on the revision to the CDM 2007 Regulations. The presentation has now been published - CDM Revised Regulatory Package Update.

The declared objectives of the new regulations are:

Implementation - current law 'under-implements' since there are no duties on 'domestic clients';
Simplification - the new package must be more user-friendly and less bureaucratic;
Roles - align roles more accurately with the EU Directive requirements;
Cost and bureaucracy - aim is to produce cost savings for businesses and less 'bureaucracy';
SMEs - new regulations should improve compliance of SMEs; and
Regulatory impact - regulations must meet better regulation principles.

So what will this mean to those involved in CDM projects? Until we have the finer detail there doesn't look as though there is anything too complicated; however we need to know what impact the new regulations will have for those of us who are either Clients, CDM-C's, Designers or Contractors.

For further detail on the related EU Directive, please see Basis of the CDM 2014 Regulations explained.

What are your thoughts on the details that HSE have released so far on these new CDM regulations?