University of Surrey
PRINCIPAL DESIGNER / CDM CONSULTANT
The Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) are intended to protect the health and safety of people working in construction and others affected by the works. CDM 2015 now fully aligns with the EU Temporary Mobile Construction Sites Directive addressing for the first time domestic clients and multiple contractor construction sites. The client now has overall health and safety responsibility for the successful execution of a project with the principal designer and principal contractor taking the lead over different phases.
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Clients must ensure that construction work is carried out, so far as is reasonably practicable, without risk to the health and safety of workers and others. We can assist with this in our capacity as a principal designer or CDM consultant.
Principal designer
For construction sites where it is anticipated that there will be more than one contractor, clients have a responsibility to appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor.
Our role as principal designer is to plan, manage and monitor the co-ordination of health and safety in the pre-construction design phase of the project (overlapping with construction).
We will assist the client with the project set up, identify, obtain and collate pre-construction information and distribute, advise on missing information, co-ordinate health and safety, ensure designers comply with their duties, liaise with the principal contractor, prepare the health and safety file or pass responsibility to the principal contractor and comply with core designer obligations.
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CDM consultant
As CDM consultants we implement delegated duties such as notification of a project, collation and issue of pre-construction information, advice on missing information, review and comment on the principal contractor’s construction phase plan and welfare arrangements. Working with the principal designer, we can ensure that all designers are complying with their obligations under CDM 2015 and we implement audit procedures to ensure that both the principal designer and principal contractor are complying.