Employers get six months’ grace over new regulations

The New Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) come into effect on 6 April 2015, but transitional arrangements mean that employers will have six months to get to grips with the new regulations.

The HSE has recently published draft legal series guidance to help those covered prepare for the new regulations. These provide greater detail on the changes in the new regulations and include further clarification of the duty holder role of the client and competence requirements to help the industry to assess whether project teams are delivering a safe and healthy project.

In addition, the CDM co-ordinator role is due to be replaced with the principal designer role meaning that the responsibility for coordination of the pre-construction phase will be the responsibility of an existing member of the design team.

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) has published a series of draft industry guides for each of the five duty holders identified under CDM Regulations 2015: these are clients, contractors, designers, principal contractors and principal designers, as well as workers.

The HSE is also working with the entertainment industry to provide specific guidance.