Regulation revision for engineers

It is nearly six years since the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994 were put into effect. The Regulations aim to improve the management and co-ordination of health, safety and welfare throughout all stages of a construction project to reduce the large numbers of serious and fatal accidents and cases of ill-health.

The CDM Regulations place duties on all those who can contribute to the health and safety of a construction project. Duties are placed upon clients, designers and contractors. The Regulations created a new duty holder – the planning supervisor. They also introduced new documents – Health and Safety Plans and the Health and Safety File.

An Approved Code of Practice (ACoP), Managing Health & Safety in Construction, was also published by the Health & Safety Executive to give guidance on how the Regulations should be implemented.

The aim of the CDM Regulations – to reduce the number of deaths and accidents – cannot be challenged. However, it became clear from industry discussions that the Regulations were not fully understood and that some people were reluctant to shoulder their responsibilities. There were also problems caused by the paper driven approach that some duty holders took to implementing CDM. Above all, the number of deaths and injuries on site was not being reduced.

In view of these concerns, a revised ACoP and guidance on the CDM Regulations was published by the HSE last December. As a result Managing Health & Safety in Construction came into force on 1 February 2002.

The HSE also plans a review of the CDM Regulations, beginning with a wide ranging discussion document in the spring. This will ask how the CDM Regulations could be improved and how compliance and encouraging best practice can be improved.

The role of the designer – a reminder
It is worthwhile reminding ourselves of the duty of a designer under CDM. Designers are organisations or individuals who carry out design work for a construction project. Designers may include architects, consulting engineers, quantity surveyors, chartered surveyors, technicians, specifiers, principal contractors and specialist contractors. The term 'design' is widely construed and includes drawings, design details, specifications and bills of quantity.

The Regulations were changed in October 2000 to make it clear that legal duties on designers to build safety into a design apply not only to a design prepared by them personally, but also to a design prepared by an employee or other person under their control.

Be aware of your responsibility
Designers have the following duties in relation to health and safety under the CDM Regulations:

• Make clients aware of their duties – you have a legal duty to explain to the client their responsibilities under CDM.
  
• Give due regard to health and safety in design work – when you carry out your design work, you have to consider the potential effect of your design on the health and safety of those carrying out the construction work and others affected by the work.
  
• Provide adequate information about the health and safety risk of the design to those who need it – when you have carried out your design work and concluded that there are risks, which it is not reasonably practicable to avoid, information needs to be given about the risks that remain.
  
• Co-operate with the planning supervisor and, where appropriate, other designers involved in the project – you will need to liaise with the planning supervisor and other designers so that the work can be co-ordinated. This is to see how the different aspects of the designs interact with each other and affect health and safety.

The role of the planning supervisor was specifically created by the CDM Regulations. In essence, if you are a planning supervisor, you have responsibilities for co-ordinating the health and safety aspects of design. You are also responsible for ensuring the pre-tender stage health and safety plan is prepared. Additionally, it is up to you to ensure the health and safety file is prepared.

The revised ACoP and the review of CDM
Some people in the industry were concerned that publishing the revised ACoP before the Regulations was putting the cart before the horse. Whatever the opinions, the CDM Regulations appear not to be doing what the HSE thought they would do. Accidents have not been reduced and it appears that the Regulations were not fully understood. Parties involved in discussions on the Regulations and on the ACoP saw an overwhelming need for information on practical ways to comply with some of the requirements. As a result, the HSE agreed to revise the existing ACoP and the development of associated guidance.

The main differences in the new ACoP include a greater emphasis on the management of health and safety throughout a project's life; clarification of the duties of clients and designers under the Regulations; and a restructuring of the document to make it more user friendly.

Many people believe that the Regulations need to be strengthened to require the design team to manage health and safety from the outset. This might include designers receiving mandatory health and safety training. Others consider more emphasis should be placed on the role of the client, whereby they receive greater duties and obligations, which they cannot devolve to other third parties.

Some people think that the role of the planning supervisor should be reviewed, or even replaced. However, this remains to be seen and may not in any event be legally possible.

Summary
Designers should focus on their duties under the CDM Regulations and be aware of the revised ACoP and guidance. You may also wish to become involved in the discussions and debates which will now take place in relation to the review of CDM itself.