CDM 2014 Becomes CDM 2015

You may remember our blog post back in 2012 about proposed changes to the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations 2007 expected in 2014, well fast forward a couple of years, and those changes look set to finally make there way through the legal system and into force.

CDM 2014 has now become CDM 2015.

Things have changed somewhat but the basis of the changes remains the same as we expected back in 2012.

The CDM Coordinator role is removed from the regulations, although the duties will still need to be carried out. These duties will now mostly pass to the new role of Principal Designer.

The Principal Designer is the appointment responsible for developing the Pre-Construction Information and providing this information to other relevant parties and duty holders.

Clients will now have the responsibility for notifying the HSE of the project (where the project is notifiable), although the notification requirements have changed somewhat, the threshold remains at 30 days but only where there are 20 or more workers simultaneously, or 500 person days (as previously).

The duties will now also apply to domestic clients and domestic projects, which means, in addition to no longer being exempt from the requirements of notification, domestic clients will now need to make the appointments of Principal Contractor and Principal Designer. Previously domestic clients did not need to appoint Principal Contractors or CDM Coordinators or have specific duties under CDM.

There are some automatic rules within the new regulations whereby the Principal Contractor and Principal Designer are automatically appointed should the domestic client fail to make written formal appointments. For example, it is expected that the domestic client duties will be carried out by the contractor in control of the work, and where there is more than one contractor, this will be the Principal Contractor.

It is, therefore, vital that those working as designers, contractors and indeed clients in the construction industry are fully aware of the changes and the requirements that may fall on them, even without instruction.

It is also important to note that while the threshold for notification has increased, this no longer applies to the duty holder appointments, therefore all projects involving more than one contractor will now have a Principal Contractor appointment, and all projects will need a Principal Designer appointed.

While on the face of it, the changes to CDM may not seem huge, with many of the duties remaining in force from CDM 2007, the way these duties apply, and the projects they apply to, has changed significantly.

We will be releasing a CDM support package, CDM 2015 awareness training and posting lots more information on the blog over the next few months to help our clients make the change over to CDM 2015 which is expected to come into force on the 6th of April 2015.

If you are working as a Principal Contractor, why not use our CDM Construction Phase Plan Template to develop a plan that fully complies with CDM 2007 and CDM 2015.