Principal contractor

The term principal contractor has been used as a general term to describe the individual party contracted with the responsibility to deliver a specific piece of work, the work type of work can vary considerably but is normally defined with in a contract, hence the term.

In terms of the construction of buildings, similarly the principle contractor (sometimes referred to as the main contractor, or contracting firm, leads a team of sub contractors throughout the project covering the wide spectrum of trades needed to complete the project.

The term Principal Contractor more recently and specifically is associated with certain responsibilities and competencies that fall under the CDM regulations as well as the Building Safety Act.

[edit] CDM Regulations

The HSE under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) defines a Principal Contractor as:

'the contractor with control over the construction phase of a project involving more than one contractor. They are appointed in writing by the client (commercial or domestic) to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety during this phase.

A principal contractor, in close cooperation with the client and the principal designer, has an important role in influencing how the risks to health and safety are managed during construction work. This includes ensuring standards are understood and followed.'

It goes on to say:

'A principal contractor must be able to demonstrate that they have the skills, knowledge, experience (SKE) and, where an organisation, the organisational capability to carry out the work they are being appointed for. The level of SKE should be proportionate to the scale and complexity of the project and the nature of the risks to health and safety.

Examples of demonstrating SKE might include:

• records of continuing professional development (CPD) including training records
• membership of professional bodies
• references from previous construction work

Examples of demonstrating organisational capability might involve:

• using pre-qualification assessment services from third party assessors, such as those who are members of Safety Schemes in Procurement Forum (SSIP)
• self-assessing using the standard health and safety pre-qualification questions in Publicly Available Specification PAS 91

For more information read our article CDM 2015 principal contractor duties

[edit] Building Safety Act

The HSE document 'Building safety competence information for principal contractors and principal designers: Competency standard PAS 8671:2022 and Competency standard PAS 8672:2022' published in October 2022 sates:

'A building regulations principal contractor can also be an individual or an organisation. A principal contractor is a contractor in control of the building work, and can be, for example: a construction company, an individual contractor'

It goes on to give a brief summary of competency under PAS 8672 saying:

'The Building Regulations Principal Contractor (PC) must plan, manage and monitor the building work, cooperate, coordinate and communicate to ensure the building work complies with building regulations. The principal contractor is expected to take responsibility for their site. principal contractors should manage the flow of information and make sure it gets to those who need it. Principal contractors are expected to work with designers and other contractors to make sure all building work complies with relevant building regulations. Monitoring is frequently overlooked. A principal contractor should have arrangements to monitor building work (and record this) to make sure it complies with the law and to liaise with the principal designer to agree any changes.'

For more information read of article PAS 8672 Framework for competence of Principal Contractors on our Building Safety wiki.

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