Last edited 15 Apr 2015

CDM 2007 designers

For information about the role of designers under the 2015 CDM regulations see CDM 2015 designers.

The text below relates to the superseded 2007 CDM regulations and is provided as a historical reference.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM Regulations) are intended to ensure health and safety issues are properly considered during a project’s development so the risk of harm to those who have to build, use and maintain structures is reduced.

They were introduced in 1994 and came into force on 31 March 1995. They were substantially revised in 2007.

The regulations impose duties on:

The regulations define a designer as ‘…any person (including a client, contractor or other person referred to in these Regulations) who in the course or furtherance of a business:

prepares or modifies a design; or
arranges for or instructs any person under his control to do so,

relating to a structure or to a product or mechanical or electrical system intended for a particular structure, and a person is deemed to prepare a design where a design is prepared by a person under his control.'

Where ‘design’ includes ‘…drawings, design details, specification and bill of quantities (including specification of articles or substances) relating to a structure, and calculations prepared for the purpose of a design’.

The duties of designers include:

Ensuring the client is aware of their duties under the regulations.
In so far as is reasonably practicable, avoiding foreseeable risks to the health and safety of any person that is: carrying out construction work; liable to be affected by such construction work; cleaning any window or any transparent or translucent wall, ceiling or roof in or on a structure; maintaining the permanent fixtures and fittings of a structure; or using a structure designed as a workplace.
Eliminating hazards which may give rise to risks.
Reducing risks from any remaining hazards.
Giving collective measures priority over individual measures.
Taking account of the provisions of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 which relate to the design of, and materials used in, the structure.
Take all reasonable steps to provide sufficient information to the client, other designers and contractors.

Where projects are notifiable under the regulations (projects which last more than 30 days or involve more than 500 person-days of construction work), the additional duties of designers include:

Ensuring a CDM co-ordinator has been appointed for the project. NB It is generally accepted that ‘design’ commences at concept design stage, and so designers should not commence this stage until a CDM co-ordinator has been appointed.
Take all reasonable steps to provide sufficient information to assist the CDM co-ordinator to comply with their duties, including duties in relation to the health and safety file.