CDM 2007 Are you ready? The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 An introduction to the new regulations

Transcription

1 CDM 2007 Are you ready? The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 An introduction to the new regulations

2 The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 Coming into force on the 6th April 2007, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM 2007) are likely to have a significant impact on the way in which construction projects are managed. In April of this year the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 will come into force. Whilst many of the requirements of the previous regulations (CDM 1994) remain, there are a number of changes that are going to affect the ways in which duty holders will have to manage their responsibilities in future. The shift in emphasis towards effective management and planning, the enhanced duty upon Clients to ensure that adequate health, safety and welfare arrangements are put in place, the new role of CDM Co-ordinator, and the new requirements to assess the competence of appointees, will all require careful consideration. With over twenty-five years experience in the development and delivery of innovative, effective health and safety training, RRC are well placed to offer advice, assistance and solutions tailored to meet organisational or individual needs. Gary Fallaize, Managing Director, RRC Training. In addition to a revision of the existing regulations (CDM 1994), they have been consolidated, along with the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996, into a single legislative package. The principal objective of the new regulations, and the supporting Approved Code of Practice, is to reduce the incidence of construction accidents and ill health. New measures intended to help achieve this aim include: Minimising bureaucracy associated with construction work and placing a greater emphasis on effective planning and management Providing a level of flexibility that accommodates the full range of contractual arrangements found in the construction industry Emphasising the need for effective communication, co-ordination and co-operation between the different parties involved in a project Requiring duty holders to establish the competence of appointees, and also to ensure their own competence prior to accepting any appointment Simplifying the ways in which the competence of relevant parties is assessed by duty holders prior to selection 2 3

3 Requiring the Principal Contractor, and other Contractors, to be informed how much time is available for planning and preparation prior to work commencing Making the Client s existing duties more explicit and requiring the Client to take reasonable steps to ensure that the health and safety arrangements made by other duty holders are sufficient Some of the more significant changes resulting from the introduction of the revised regulations and ACoP include: The introduction of an important new duty holder, the CDM Co-ordinator (replacing the Planning Supervisor role from CDM 1994) A new duty on Designers to ensure that structures they design as workplaces comply with the relevant requirements of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 A new duty on Designers to eliminate hazards and reduce remaining risks, so far as is reasonably practicable Removal of the facility whereby Clients can transfer their criminal liabilities (under CDM) to a Client s Agent The enhanced duty on Clients to exercise their influence in ensuring effective health and safety standards during construction projects For notification purposes, demolition will be treated in the same way as other types of construction work (although a documented plan of how the work will be conducted must be prepared) Duties and Duty Holders under CDM 2007 There are a number of very specific duties and requirements placed on all duty holders by the regulations. The summary below provides a brief outline of some, but by no means all, of the key responsibilities: Clients: The individual or organisation for whom a construction project is carried out. to take reasonable steps to ensure that: adequate health, safety and welfare arrangements (including the allocation of time and resources) are implemented the design of a structure intended to be used as a workplace complies with the requirements of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations where a project is notifiable to the HSE (i.e. projects of more than 30 days duration or involving more than 500 person-days), to appoint a competent CDM Co-ordinator to appoint a competent Principal Contractor to provide information to other duty holders on any issues affecting the site, the construction work, the proposed use of the structure, the time available for planning and preparation, and any relevant information from an existing health and safety file to ensure that the construction phase does not start unless the Principal Contractor has prepared a construction phase plan 4 5

4 on completion of the project, to ensure that the health and safety file is kept available for inspection and is revised to include relevant information whenever necessary Notes: 1. Whilst Clients are not expected to manage the work themselves, they are required to make sure that other duty holders have put adequate health and safety arrangements in place 2. Domestic clients, under almost all circumstances, do not have duties under CDM 2007 CDM Co-ordinators: Persons appointed to provide advice and assistance to the Client on measures required to comply with CDM to advise the Client on the adequacy of the risk control arrangements put in place by other duty holders to notify the HSE of the project to provide assistance and advice on the appointment of competent contractors and designers to ensure proper co-operation and co-ordination of the health and safety aspects of the design and planning process to facilitate good communication and co-operation between members of the project team Designers: Persons involved in the preparation of, or who arrange for other people to prepare, designs for construction work. to ensure that the Client is aware of his duties under CDM 2007 if the project is notifiable, to ensure that a CDM Co-ordinator has been appointed to avoid, when preparing a construction design, foreseeable risks to the health and safety of anyone who may be: carrying out the construction work affected by the construction work involved in maintenance operations or cleaning work using a structure that has been designed as a workplace to eliminate hazards and reduce remaining risks to ensure that the workplaces they design comply with the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare Regulations 1992 to provide information about any aspects of the design, construction or maintenance of the structure, that will assist other duty holders in complying with their duties under the regulations to prepare a health and safety file, to liaise with the Principal Contractor over the content of the file, and to ensure it is received by the Client at the end of the construction phase 6 7

5 Principal Contractors: The main or managing contractor for the project. the preparation, and ongoing review, of a construction phase plan that identifies the risks to health and safety arising from the work, and appropriate measures to address those risks to co-ordinate and manage the construction phase of the project in a manner that ensures the health and safety of everyone carrying out the work, or who may be affected by it to ensure that workers receive a suitable site induction and adequate information and training to allow their work to be conducted safely to ensure arrangements are in place for effective cooperation and consultation over health, safety and welfare issues to liaise with the Contractors and the CDM Coordinator on the content of the health and safety file Contractors: Anyone who carries out or manages construction work is considered to be a contractor under CDM to plan, manage and monitor their own work so that risks to health and safety are minimised to take all reasonable steps to ensure that work is carried out in accordance with the construction phase plan, and to notify the Principal Contractor of anything which may require the plan to be amended to inform the Principal Contractor of any other contractors appointed to inform any contractor appointed of the amount of time allowed for planning and preparation prior to construction work commencing to promptly provide details of any reportable accidents or incidents to the Principal Contractor to provide all workers under their control with adequate information and training to allow the work to be conducted safely, e.g. significant findings of the risk assessment control measures that are to be implemented to minimise risk risks arising from the work of other contractors site rules emergency procedures All Duty Holders: The need to establish the competence of all persons involved in a construction project features strongly in CDM As such, there is a new general duty, upon all duty holders: not to appoint a CDM Co-ordinator, Designer, Principal Contractor or Contractor unless reasonable steps have been taken to ensure that the person to be appointed is competent not to accept any such appointment themselves unless they are competent to do so not to arrange for a worker to carry out or manage any construction or design work, unless the worker is competent to do so or is under the supervision of a competent person. 8 9

6 Enforcement Enforcement of the requirements of CDM 2007 is the responsibility of the Health and Safety Executive The most common means of enforcement is the issue of Notices: Improvement Notices generally require action to improve specific aspects of the health, safety or welfare arrangements to be taken within a specified period of time Prohibition Notices generally require operations or activities to cease until such time as the specified improvements have been made Failure to comply with the requirements of an Improvement or Prohibition Notice is, in itself, a criminal offence In some cases, it may be decided that the breach of legislation is severe enough to warrant prosecution Breaches of CDM are triable either summarily (in the Magistrates Court) or on indictment (in the Crown Court). Maximum penalties are: Magistrates Court: Fines not exceeding 20,000 Crown Court: Unlimited fines Outcomes of some recent prosecutions: Two companies were fined a total of 300,000 (plus 63,000 costs) when a man died after falling 5m. from an unprotected edge during maintenance work Two companies were fined a total of 350,000 when a workman died after being struck by a timber shutter that fell whilst being lifted Two companies and a company were director fined a total of 250,000 after a man died when a dumper truck used to move soil overturned A company and a director were both fined 80,000 (plus 35,000 costs) after a lorry driver died when the grab of his lorry-mounted crane came into contact with an overhead power line The true cost of getting it wrong Figures published by the Health and Safety Executive indicate that in the last 25 years, over 2,800 people have died and many more have sustained major injuries or ill-health as a result of construction work. Despite improvements in construction health and safety standards, and the associated downward trend in the number of fatal and major injuries, these types of accidents still occur all too often. In , there were: 59 fatal injuries to workers in construction (the lowest rate on record) 3,677 major injuries to employees were reported (again, the lowest rate on record) In addition to the tragic human costs, the financial costs associated with these types of accidents are staggering. In one recent study, the annual cost of reportable accidents in the construction industry was estimated to be over 600,000,000! The combined costs of minor and non-injury accidents are estimated to be even higher. The annual cost of reportable accidents in the construction industry is estimated to be over 600,000,000! 10 11

7 Sources of Guidance and Information The main source of guidance on CDM 2007 is, of course, the Health and Safety Executive The Approved Code of Practice Managing Health and Safety in Construction published by the HSE, is the principal source of guidance on how to comply with the regulations and has the same special legal status as other ACoPs. The HSE also produce guidance notes on a wide range of construction health and safety topics, examples include: Health and Safety in Roof Work (HSG 33) Avoiding Danger from Underground Services (HSG 47) Safe Use of Vehicles on Construction Sites (HSG 144) Health and Safety in Excavations (HSG 185) Construction Infonet e-bulletin This is a free on-line publication, again from the HSE, that provides regular updates on a wide range of construction health and safety issues. Register via the HSE Construction web-site. Further information on all of the above is available from: We have the formula for your success Good health and safety management is crucial to commercial success and a positive health and safety culture is gained from a sound knowledge base. But learning styles differ from individual to individual and finding the right training to meet the needs, budget and nature of you, your organisation or your employees is not always easy. RRC Training is the leading health, safety and environmental training provider, with over 75 years experience in delivering education and training. Operating internationally, RRC delivers effective training to both individuals and multinational corporations. Approved by the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council and accredited by NEBOSH, IOSH and the IIRSM, RRC Training has always been a leader in the development of advanced training delivery methods and continually evolves its services in training consultancy, distance and e-learning and taught courses to ensure that our clients receive the highest levels of service. RRC Training s expertise is in the design, development and delivery of health, safety and environmental training materials and courses. Other useful links include: The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health CITB The Association for Project Safety The Major Contractors Group The Design Best Practice web-site

8 We have at our disposal a team of specialist consultant tutors who are experts in their chosen fields and an international support network that allows us to run courses anywhere in the world. One of our main strengths is our ability to offer training at every level in a variety of different formats to meet your precise needs. Specialists in Taught Courses Our block release courses offer expert tuition that allows participants to achieve their qualification quickly and effectively. Specialists in e-learning For full details of short courses and briefings on Safety and new regulations, and other health, safety and environment training, contact RRC Training by telephone on or info@rrc.co.uk RRC Training St George s Road London SW19 4DS UK Web: Our bespoke e-learning site has been designed with users in mind and is subject to continual improvements to make studying online as easy and interactive as possible. Specialists in Distance Learning We ve been offering distance learning courses for over 75 years so we know what works. All of our distance learning programmes incorporate comprehensive yet easy to study course material, but at their heart lies the support of our specialist tutors on hand whenever you need them. Specialists in Bespoke Solutions RRC provide tailored qualification programmes to meet the specific requirements of larger clients. This can involve providing a blended option for your students, proactive tutor support, arranging for the course to be held at a venue of your choice or adapting the content of courses to be more appropriate to your specific needs

9 We have the formula for your success