Who is responsible for Health and Safety in a Construction Project?

William 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

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 Coordinator 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. www.cadogans.com