Safety & Health practitioner 07 March 2013

 

The Health, Safety & Environment (HSE) board is planning a ‘complete overhaul’ of the Construction Design & Management (CDM) Regulations – including removal of provisions relating to competence, and introducing duties for domestic projects – rather than the fine-tuning indicated by its review last year.

This is according to the Association for Project Safety (APS), which called the changes – revealed by the HSE in a presentation to the North West CDM Support Group on 25 February – “unnecessary and drastic”.

One of the most contentious changes is likely to be the introduction of CDM duties for all projects, commercial or domestic, where more than one contractor is working on a project. According to the APS, on these projects, one of the contractors will have to take on the equivalent duties of the CDM coordinator for the construction phase.

“We plan to put our proposals to the HSE Board in the spring. In the meantime, we will continue to tell stakeholders what is planned and listen to their comments, and will keep them informed of developments… While a desire for a reduction in bureaucracy and a drive for simplicity should be applauded, it should greatly concern the Government and the general public that these unnecessary, drastic changes could seriously undermine and set back the excellent progress made in health and safety risk management by the construction industry.” Read the full article

 

 

 

 

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