SAFETY, HEALTH & WELFARE AT WORK (CONSTRUCTION) REGULATIONS Briefing Note 1 for Clients, Designers and Project Supervisor Design Process

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1 SAFETY, HEALTH & WELFARE AT WORK (CONSTRUCTION) REGULATIONS Introduction Briefing Note 1 for Clients, Designers and Project Supervisor Design Process ISSUED NOVEMBER 2006 BY ACEI, EI, RIAI and SCS The Safety, Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 were signed by Minister Killeen on 28/9/2006. The Regulations come into operation on 6/11/2006 and replace the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2001 and 2003, save for those regulations dealing with lifting appliances. The Health & Safety Authority have also published Guidelines on the Procurement, Design and Management Requirements of the Safety Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations This briefing note does not look at all the requirements imposed on duty holders by the new Regulations but concentrates on the primary additional responsibilities of clients, designers and Project Supervisor Design Process brought about by the 2006 Regulations. This briefing note has been prepared by The Association of Consulting Engineers of Ireland, Engineers Ireland, Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Society of Chartered Surveyors ( hereafter referred to as The Design Professional Bodies). It must be read in conjunction with the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (No 10 of 2005), Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 ( S.I. No. 504 of 2006) and the HSA Guidelines to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations S.I. No. 504 of Reference in this briefing note to the Guidelines means the Final Draft of the HSA Guidelines to the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations (Dated 4 th. September 2006) issued to The Design Professional Bodies. The Health and Safety Authority state in the Introduction to their Guidelines Following the guidance is not compulsory and you are free to take other actions to achieve compliance. But if you follow the guidance you will normally be doing enough to comply with the law. Health and Safety Authority inspectors seek to secure compliance with the law and may refer to this 1

2 guidance as illustrating good practice and compliance. They go on to state These Guidelines aim to give practical guidance to clients, designers, project supervisors, contractors and workers on how they can comply with the design & management aspect of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations (S.I. No. 504 of 2006). The main changes under the Regulations and some relevant extracts from the Guidelines are as set out in 2 to 5 below and the Professional Bodies advice on matters that may require immediate action follows that. 2. Transitional Arrangements a) The new Regulations shall come into operation on the 6/11/2006 (Effective Date). [Regulation 1] b) Anyone appointed as a Project Supervisor Design Stage (PSDS) under the old Regulations before 6/11/2006, and where the design stage has commenced, may carry out that role on that project for 18 months and will not be required to comply with the new duties imposed on the Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP). The Client may, however, choose to appoint the PSDS to the PSDP role. The Client may also apply to the HSA to have it extended to a total 30 months. [Regulation 1] c) Anyone appointed as a Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS) under the old Regulations before the 6/11/2006, and where the construction stage has commenced, and notification made to the Health and Safety Authority, may carry on that role for 18 months and will not be required to comply with the new duties imposed on the PSCS under the 2006 Regulations. [Regulation 1] d) For projects where the design stage commenced before 6/11/06, if the Project Supervisor Design Stage (PSDS) has been appointed under the old Regulations and the Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS) has been appointed under the 2006 Regulations, the Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS) shall coordinate the design of temporary works to facilitate the construction of the project. [Regulation 1.12]. The PSCS will also be responsible for the preparation of the Safety File for handover.[regulation 21.2] at the end of the project 3. Client 3.1 The Client must appoint in writing a competent project supervisor for the design process (PSDP) [Regulation 6.1.a] at or before the start of the design process 2 [Regulation 6.3.a] The client shall obtain written confirmation of the acceptance of this appointment. [Regulation 6.1]

3 3.2 The Client must appoint in writing a competent project supervisor for the construction stage (PSCS) [Regulation 6.1.b] before the commencement of the construction work [Regulation 6.3.b] The client shall obtain written confirmation of the acceptance of this appointment. [Regulation 6.1] 3.3 The Client must be satisfied that each Designer, PSDP, PSCS and Contractor appointed is competent and has allocated or will allocate adequate resources to enable them to comply with the regulations. [Regulation 7] 3.4 The term competence is now defined as sufficient training, experience and knowledge appropriate to the task, and taking account of the size of the project and its hazards. 3.5 The Client must provide a copy of the Safety & Health Plan prepared on a preliminary basis by the PSDP, to any person being considered for the role of project supervisor for the construction stage. [Regulation 9] 3.6 The Client must notify the Authority promptly of the Appointment of the PSDP and PSCS where construction work is likely to take more than 500 person days or 30 working days. This notification is to be on Form (AF1). Note: These duties do not apply if the Client commissions or procures a project in relation to their own domestic dwelling, and the project is not for the purpose or furtherance of a trade, business or other undertaking. Project Supervisors do not have to be appointed for routine maintenance, cleaning, decoration and repair within or to a structure, so long as the work does not involve a particular risk including but not limited to a risk referred to in Schedule 1 of the Regulations, there is only one Contractor or where the work is planned to not last more than 30 working days or 500 person days. [Regulation 6.5 & 6.6] 4. Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP) 4.1 The Project Supervisor Design Stage (PSDS) has now been replaced by the Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP). As well as taking account of the general principals of prevention, the PSDP has been given significant new duties and the new 3

4 definition of design process makes clear that the role and duties apply in relation to any design changes, and continue throughout the construction stage. 4.2 The Project Supervisor Design Process shall organise cooperation between Designers on the same project and, so far as is reasonably practicable, ensure coordination of their activities in relation to the design of the project with a view to protecting the safety, health & welfare of persons involved in construction work. [Regulation 11.1C(c)] This includes organising cooperation and ensuring, so far as is reasonably practicable, the coordination of the activities of all temporary works Designers. 4.3 The Guidelines state The PSDP should pay particular attention to potentially catastrophic issues such as overall instability of the structure during the various stages of construction. In coordinating the activities of the various Designers where the integrity of a structure during construction is an important safety issue, the PSDP should insist ( and be in a position to insist ) that one designer takes overall design responsibility for the stability of a structure during the envisaged construction process and that a suitably qualified engineer be employed to liase with the Designer, PSDP and the PSCS. See Clause 6.2 for further advice. 4.4 The guidelines state The requirement of the Construction Regulations for the PSDP to co-ordinate the design of works, including the design of temporary works, does not eliminate the need for the appointment (generally by contractors) of competent temporary works engineers who understand the complexity of the forces involved in temporary works-permanent works interaction and who can design the temporary works to take account of these forces 4.5 The PSDP, in preparing the Safety and Health Plan on a preliminary basis, is required to include further information, such as the conclusions reached by designers and the project supervisor as regards the taking account of the general principals of prevention and any relevant safety and health plan or safety file [Regulation 12(1)(v)]. 4.6 The Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP), and not the PSCS, is now responsible for the preparation of the Safety File appropriate to the characteristics of the project, containing relevant safety and health information, and delivering it to the Client on completion of the project. [Regulation 13] The project supervisor for the construction stage (PSCS) must coordinate arrangements among contractors to ensure the provision of 4

5 the relevant information, in writing, necessary for the project supervisor for the design process to complete the safety file. They PSCS must also provide in writing to the PSDP all relevant information necessary to complete the Safety File. [Regulation 21] 5. Designer 5.1 If no PSDP has been appointed, Designers must immediately inform the Client of his duty to do so. 5.2 Designers also have expanded duties in relation to co-operation with the project supervisors and other designers, and in relation to the provision of information. 5.3 The HSA Guidelines advise: The scope/areas of design responsibility of a designer is determined by his or her brief. It is essential that areas of responsibility between the various designers on a project are delineated as clearly as possible to avoid overlap or gaps which could be confusing and/or potentially dangerous. Once those areas of responsibility have been determined, the duties of each designer relating to health and safety, can be clearly set down. 5.4 The HSA Guidelines say that designers must provide information on significant hazards. The Guidelines also state: Information provided must be specific to the project. In relation to structural stability for example, where a design is (or should be) based on a particular erection or construction sequence, on the installation and removal of falsework, temporary propping or formwork and the sequencing of this, any loading restrictions during construction, and where these factors, might not be apparent to a contractor, designers (including as appropriate temporary works, permanent works and specialist designers) should make available to the PSCS, PSDP and contractors, pertinent information to allow construction to proceed safely in accordance with the appropriate design intent. 5

6 6. Immediate Advice from the Design Professional Bodies 6.1 Where a Client has appointed the Project Supervisor Design Stage (PSDS) on a project, and design work has commenced, before the 6/11/2006, the duties of the Client in relation to the appointment of a Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP) and all duties assigned to the PSDP under the 2006 Regulations apply only from 18 months after that date [Reg. 1(3)] (with possible extension to 30 months [Reg. 1(5), (6) and (7)] ). It should be noted, however, that all other duties which are imposed on the client (such as checking resources and competence of designers and contractors) as well as other new duties for designers under the 2006 Regulations will apply from 6/11/ Provide in the contract documents at tender stage that the main Contractor appoints a competent Temporary Works Designer who takes overall design responsibility for the stability of the structure during the envisaged construction process and that he also employs a suitably qualified engineer and both should be required to liase with each other and the Project Supervisors. On small routine projects this engineer need not be permanently on site. In some cases it may be possible for one person to fulfil both of these roles. 6.3 The manual Designing for Safety in Construction (DSC) will be reviewed as soon as possible in the light of the new Regulations. However, since the basic duty to take account of the Principles of Prevention remains as before, the core advice in DSC in that regard remains valid. Designers must evaluate hazards that their design may present, and attempt to design out those hazards where possible or reduce the risks arising from residual hazards, and communicate to the PSCS, PSDP and contractors, pertinent information to allow construction to proceed safely in accordance with the appropriate design intent. There is now the issue of what may reasonably be required of designers by the PSDP to enable him to comply with his duties, in particular to assist the PSDP in identifying any gaps in the risk assessments undertaken by each of the Designers and ensuring coordination, so far as is reasonably practicable, between the relevant Designers to see that those gaps are plugged. In order to do this, Designers should issue their Designer s Assessment Sheets, as demonstrated in Appendix 4 of the DSC manual. When doing so, designers should point out that the assessments have been carried out as recommended in the ACEI / IEI / RIAI guidance manual Designing for Safety in Construction and that, before reading the 6

7 assessments, any other party is advised to refer to that manual and in particular, but not exclusively, to paragraphs inclusive. 6.4 In order for the PSDP to comply with the requirements under Regulation 11.1.C Organise cooperation between Designers on the same project it is recommended the PSDP should put in place systems, such as meetings and other lines of communications, through which the various Designers on the project pass information and cooperate between themselves in discharging their respective duties as Designers. 6.5 The Project Supervisors are empowered to issue directions to Designers, contractors or others, which directions, if carried out, will assist or enable compliance by the Project Supervisors with the Construction Regulations. [Regulation 14.1.a] Designers must comply with all such directions. However, the direction must be reasonable, in the context of the duty with which the person is required to comply. [Regulation 2(3)] The guidelines state in this regard Any such direction must be reasonable. It would not be reasonable for instance for a Project Supervisor to direct a designer to do something which in a designer s opinion he or she is not competent to do, or which relates to matters which the designer does not effectively control or which the designer would be legally constrained from doing. 6.6 The PSDP is required under Regulation 11.1(c) So far as is reasonably practicable, ensure coordination of their activities (ie Designers) in relation to the design of a project with a view to protecting the Safety, Health & Welfare of persons involved in construction work. The principal function of the PSDP appears to be in identifying any gaps in the risk assessments undertaken by each of the Designers (including the Temporary Works Designers) and ensuring coordination between the relevant Designers to see that those gaps are plugged. The PSDP does not assume any design responsibility for the works of Designers. In essence, the role appears to be concerned with raising questions with the Designers to verify that risks have been taken into account, particularly where an element of the project involves Design input from more than one Designer. 6.7 The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, The Safety Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 and the obligations imposed on the various duty holders as a result of these Regulations, will need to be carefully reflected in the contractual arrangements put in place, for projects subject to these Regulations. 7

8 6.8 Acceptance of any appointment as Project Supervisor should preferably be in the name of a company not an individual. A partnership or other unincorporated consortium cannot act as a Project Supervisor. 6.9 Provide in the contract documents at tender stage that the main Contractor shall deliver a Safety File prepared on a preliminary basis, to the Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP) at the end of the project. The PSDP should specify what should be in this preliminary Safety File. It is then the Project Supervisor Design Process s (PSDP) responsibility to complete the Safety File and deliver it to the Client Carefully review your contractual arrangements generally to ensure that the scope of your brief and your duties are clearly set out. 7. Further Reading The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 (No 10 of 2005), Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 ( S.I. No. 504 of 2006) Guidelines on the Procurement, Design and Management Requirements of the Safety Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 Designing for Safety in Construction ACEI/IEI/RIAI 8. Note There is now a statutory definition of "reasonably practicable. For the purposes of the relevant statutory provisions, "reasonably practicable", in relation to the duties of an employer, means that an employer has exercised all due care by putting in place the necessary protective and preventive measures, having identified the hazards and assessed the risks to safety and health likely to result in accidents or injury to health at the place of work concerned and where the putting in place of any further measures is grossly disproportionate having regard to the unusual, unforeseeable and exceptional nature of any circumstance or occurrence that may result in an accident at work or injury to health at that place of work. This definition also applies for the purpose of the Regulations to the duties under the regulations of other [Regulation 2.2] persons. This briefing Note is intended as general guidance based on present understandings of the regulations, the 2005 Act and the final draft of the HSA s guidelines. Advice given must be considered in the context of professional judgement exercised by competent professional designers. It is not intended to provide the definitive approach in any situation: In all circumstances those best placed to decide on the appropriate action will be the parties undertaking the particular project. Appropriate legal and insurance advice should be sought as necessary. 8