Last edited 08 May 2024

CDM 2015

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The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM Regulations) (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/contents/made) are intended to ensure that health and safety issues are properly considered during a project’s development so that the risk of harm to those who have to build, use and maintain structures is reduced.

They were introduced in 1994 following publication of European Directive 92/57/EEC on minimum safety and health standards for temporary or mobile construction sites. The CDM Regulations were revised in 2007, and the latest revision came into force on 6 April 2015.

The latest revision resulted from:

The regulations therefore made the following changes:

These changes separate the threshold for coordination from that of notifying the HSE about the works. The HSE must be notified where the construction work is likely to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or exceed 500 person days.

In terms of the organisation of projects, the most significant of these changes is the replacement of the role of CDM coordinator with a new role of ‘principal designer’ (PD). The reason for the change is to give responsibility for CDM during the design phase to an individual that has the ability to influence the design. The role of principal designer is analogous to that of the principal contractor during the construction phase and includes:

This change required the amendment of appointment documents and contracts.

Other duty holders under the regulations are:

A survey looking into the impact of CDM 2015 published by Construction Manager and Health and Safety at Work in May 2017 suggested that the principles of CDM 2015 were struggling to take root and that:

Ref Construction Manager 18 May 2017.

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