Safety briefing - Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015

This briefing provides a short introduction to the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM).

What’s covered?

The aim of this Safety Briefing - Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 is to give some background information on the CDM Regulations for construction workers and others who have involvement with construction projects.

Why following the regulations is important

CDM is designed to protect construction workers and those using and maintaining structures. Significant penalties are available to the authorities in case of non-compliance. All those involved in projects need to work together to meet these legal requirements.

A summary of duties under CDM

The client has a duty to pull together a competent project team and ensure there are proper management arrangements for health and safety. Any designers involved must try to minimise risks at the design stage. And contractors (and principal contractors) have responsibility for safety on site including drawing up a construction phase plan. These and other specific duties are described in our summary.

Construction site standards under CDM

The briefing explains that every construction site must meet minimum requirements for welfare facilities including toilet and washing facilities. It also lists the aspects of site safety which are covered by the regulations such as security, emergency procedures, dismantling, vehicle routes and more.

Key points

As the document suggests, workers must take note of the following key points:

• CDM govern health and safety in construction work
• the regulations give duties to clients, designers and contractors in the planning and management of work on sites
• they set minimum standards for welfare facilities and specific safety measures
• everyone has a duty to co-operate with the various duty holders to enable them to comply.