Quick-fire FAQs: CDM 2015

Posted 6 years ago

We’ve already brought you the iHasco CDM Whitepaper in an attempt to shed some light on this key piece of industry legislation. As CDM 15 continues to bed in with construction workflows, and with the arrival of our CDM Regulations Training, we thought we’d bring you some quick-fire FAQs to tackle some of the big questions…

Q: When is a construction project ‘notifiable’?

A: Under CDM 2015, a project becomes notifiable if the construction work:

Will last more than 30 working days AND will have more than 20 active workers at the same time throughout any point in the project
Will exceed 500 person days

If your project falls into the category of being notifiable, you can complete the relevant F10 Notification here.

Q: Who is responsible for notifying a project?

A: The client. But realistically they might ask someone else to do it on their behalf.

Q: I was a CDM co-ordinator under CDM 2007. Can I now take on the role of the Principal Designer (PD)?

A: The short answer is no, not necessarily. In order to qualify as an eligible PD under CDM 15 you must be a designer of some kind. This could mean that you:

Are an architect, consulting engineer, quantity surveyor or anyone who specifies and alters designs as part of their work
Are a contractor/builder, commercial client, tradesperson or anyone who carries out design work, or arranges for or instructs people to do so

Critically, CDM 15 puts heavy emphasis on persons undertaking roles to have the right skills, knowledge and experience (previously referred to in CDM2007 as ‘competencies’) to fulfil their respective duties. In the case of the PD, this involves being able to undertake all functions of the job in hand and be in control of the full pre-construction phase.

Q: I’m a client, can I take on the Principal Designer (PD) role?

A: Yes. As stated above, you can take on the PD role yourself if you have the skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability, to carry out all the necessary responsibilities of the PD.

Q: As a general builder do I need a Construction Phase Plan (CPP) for any construction work I do?

A: Yes you do. If you are the only contractor working on a project (or you are the principal contractor then you must produce a CPP document. The HSE provides a guidance document about how to put this together, but it’s important to realise the CPP is designed to ensure you have thought about health and safety throughout your project, and the document detail should be proportionate to the size and scale of your project. (NB if there are multiple contractors working on a job it is the Principal Contractor who must draw up the CPP. For small projects, using the free CITB CDM Wizard is an acceptable way to produce a CPP.)

Tablet, hardhat and design plans at a work bench as part of fire FAQ's

CDM Regulations Training

Work towards compliance with the CDM Regulations in just 30 minutes with our online CDM Training.

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