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Who is responsible for Health and Safety in a Construction
Project?Who is responsible for Health and Safety in a Construction
Project?Who is responsible for Health and Safety in a Construction
Project?Who is responsible for Health and Safety in a Construction
Project?
William OBritis, Senior Engineer, CadogansWilliam OBritis,
Senior Engineer, CadogansWilliam OBritis, Senior Engineer,
CadogansWilliam OBritis, Senior Engineer, Cadogans
When an accident happens on site the first reaction may be to
blame the contractor. But the
client, designer and others also have responsibility for site
safety.
For a very long period of time the construction industry had the
one of the worst, if not the worst,
safety records in the United Kingdom with a significant number
of fatal accidents and serious
injuries not including the huge number minor injury cases.
As a result of this, The Construction (Design and Management)
Regulations, commonly referred
to as the CDM Regulations, were introduced in 1994 and revised
in 2007 to address the poor
safety record in the construction industry.
Prior to the introduction of the CDM Regs, if an accident
happened on a construction site it was
normally assumed that it was the fault of the contractor working
on the site. However on many
occasions this was not the case. Seldom was the designer ever
challenged or questioned about
an intricate design that was difficult or even well-nigh
impossible to construct.
The CDM Regulations were introduced to focus the attention of
all parties involved in a
construction project on all matters relating to health and
safety. The parties were challenged to
consider the total life span of say a building structure from
the initial concept stage, through the
design and construction stages and the period when the property
is occupied to the ultimate
stage its demolition. Two examples of this: how do you safely
change a blown light bulb high
up in the centre of the ceiling in a concert auditorium; or how
do you safely demolish a post
tensioned bridge?
The CDM Regulations do not apply to domestic projects i.e.
projects in which domestic clients
have work done on their own home or the home of a family member,
that does not relate to a
trade or business, whether for profit or not.
The CDM Regulations apply to all other construction projects,
however where the extent of the
construction work is greater than 30 days or involves more than
500 person days (e.g. 25 people
working on the site for 20 days) there are important
requirements imposed on the main duty
holders.
If a project is determined to extend greater than the periods
noted above, the project is
Notifiable. The Health and Safety Executive (H&SE) must be
notified in advance of the
construction phase commencing. All project details including
details of the main duty holders, a
brief description of the project and the construction work it
includes and all relative dates must be
recorded in an F10 form and submitted to the H&SE.
If a project is not notifiable the CDM regulations still apply
in part. All duty holders involved still
have a responsibility to identify any hazards and to implement
precautions to control associated
risks.
So going back to the original question - Who is responsible for
Health and Safety in a
Construction Project? Who are the main duty holders and what are
their responsibilities?
The main duty holders are the Client, the Designer, the
Principal Contractor and the CDM
Co-ordinator all of whom have different roles to play.
The client, if he had the necessary experienced personnel in
house could fulfil all the main duty
holder roles himself. In this case all personnel appointed as
the main duty holders must comply
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with the 2007 CDM Regulations in all their roles. It is more
normal for the client to appoint
external individuals / companies to fill the main duty holder
positions.
The client by definition is anyone who in carrying out a
business or other undertaking initiates a
project which includes construction or building work. The client
is responsible for appointing
competent duty holders, providing in advance any relevant
information regarding the works and
ensuring that the works comply with all other Health and Safety
legislation.
The designer is a person who prepares as part of their work
design drawings / calculations,
specifications, bills of quantities and the specification of
articles and substances relating to the
project. They could be architects, engineers and quantity
surveyors. It is one of the duties of the
designer to check that the client is aware of their duties under
the CDM Regulations and that a
CDM Co-ordinator has been appointed if required. It is also the
designers responsibility to
eliminate hazards and reduce risks during the design stage and
to provide information about any
remaining risks. As noted previously this may include risks
identified at any time during the life
span of a structure, even at its demolition.
Part of the CDM co-ordinator's role is to act as the clients
advisor on health and safety matters
during the design and planning stages of the project. A CDM
co-ordinator must be appointed on
projects which last more than 30 days or involve more than 500
person days. His duties include
notifying the H&SE, co-ordinating health and safety aspects
of the design work, liaising with the
client, the designers and the principal contractor, gathering
and passing on pre-construction
information to the principal contractor to prepare the
preconstruction Health and Safety Plan.
Although the CDM co-ordinator has no formal responsibilities
during the construction phase he
will liaise with the principal contractor in connection with
on-going design work and preparing
and updating the Health and Safety File at the end of the
construction phase. It should be noted
that the Health and Safety File acts as a reference manual for
the structure and should be
updated should any alterations be made to the structure or to
any of the services within it during
the life span of property.
The principal contractor's role is to manage the health and
safety issues when construction work
is being undertaken. The principal contractor is usually the
lead contractor co-ordinating his own
work force and his subcontractors during the construction phase
of the works. Before the
construction phase commences it is the principal contractors
responsibility to prepare, develop
and implement the Construction Phase Health and Safety Plan
describing how the construction
works will be carried out safely. He will be also be responsible
for complying with all other Health
and Safety regulations including welfare facilities, checking
the competence of all his own
workers and his subcontractors and ensuring all workers have
site inductions and any further
information / training needed for the work. In addition he is
required to liaise with the CDM Co-
ordinator regarding any ongoing design and information required
for the preparation of the Health
and Safety File at the completion of the works.
The implementation of the CDM Regulations has imparted a health
and safety ethos to all the
main duty holders in a construction project. Instead of passing
the health and safety buck down
the line to the contractor who actually builds the works, the
regulations ensure that all the main
duty holders have a health and safety input in respect of the
scope of work that each of them is
involved in. Even the client has a significant contribution to
make. The end result is a project in
which all the main hazards which could occur in the life span
of, say, a building structure have
been identified before the construction work commences, risk
assessments have been carried
out and remedial measures taken to minimise the risks. Although
the introduction of the CDM
Regulations has not completely eliminated construction site
related accidents it has resulted in
reducing the number of them.
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