The changes come into force 6th April 2015 with an allowance for existing CDM-C duty holders who will be permitted to operate under transitional provisions for a further 6 months to 6th October 2015.

The CDM regulations have now been made and laid in Parliament, as confirmed by the following link to the UK legislation web sitehttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/made

They will now become law on 6th April 2015.

The principal changes are as follows:

  • Simplification of the Regulations. CDM 2007 was perceived as being over complicated, and rarely ever fully understood or implemented. The intention is to simplify the structure of the Regulations to make them clearer and easier to understand. This is largely aimed at small to medium projects which tend to use SME companies. It is claimed that SME companies generally find the current Regulations difficult to understand and follow.
  • Strengthening of Client duties -The new Regulations recognise the influence and importance of the client as the head of the supply chain and they are best placed to set standards throughout a project.
  • Introduction of Domestic Clients – No longer exempt, to fall in line with the EU directive, so creating client duties for domestic projects but these can be transferred to the Principal Designer and/or Principal Contractor.
  • Replacement of CDM Coordinator by a Principal Designer for the planning, managing, monitoring and coordination of pre-construction phase health and safety. – This means that the responsibility for coordination of the pre-construction phase (which is crucial to the management of any successful construction project) will rest with an existing member of the design team.
  • Principal Designer and Principal Contractor will be required on all projects where there will be more than one contractor working on the project;
  • Replacement of explicit requirement for duty holder Competence with the need for appropriate Skills, Knowledge and Experience. -This will provide clarity and help the industry to both assess and demonstrate that construction project teams have the right attributes to deliver a healthy and safe project.
  • Change to the HSE’s Notification level – F10 is now only required for projects lasting more than 500 person days, or lasting more than 30 days with more than 20 workers simultaneously

CDM 2015 Draft Guidance published by HSE

This publication provides draft Legal (L) Series guidance on the legal requirements in The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015). It is available now, before the Regulations come into force on 6 April, to help anyone who has duties under the Regulations to prepare in advance.

The draft Regulations are based closely on the 2014 consultation draft but they have been amended in light of comments made in and following the consultation. In particular, they contain enhanced transitional provisions to cover projects which are already underway on 6 April 2015. These will allow for CDM co-ordinators already appointed on projects which span 6 April 2015 to remain in post for six months, or to the end of the project, whichever is earlier. The draft Regulations take a slightly different approach to ensuring that those engaged to carry out construction work are suitable, using language which more closely reflects industry practice than the consultation draft.

Note: The draft Regulations and guidance may be subject to change while the Regulations are awaiting Parliamentary approval. The final versions of both will be available on 6 April 2015.

CITB have published 6 draft Industry guidance documents http://www.citb.co.uk/cdmregs

The guidance documents have been produced for the five CDM duty holders, i.e. Clients, Principal Designers, Designers, Principal Contractors, Contractors and an additional one for Construction Workers – (not designated duty holders).

These documents set out, in practical terms, what actions are required of them to deliver a safe and healthy construction project and have been written with small businesses in mind.

It should be noted that the supporting guidance documents to the Regulations are all in draft form and may be subject to minor changes. They do however offer duty holders the opportunity to familiarise themselves with the HSE’s main requirements before they come into force in April.