Everyone controlling a construction site work has health & safety responsibilities. Checking that working conditions are healthy and safe before work begins and ensuring that the proposed work is not going to put others at risk require planning and organisation. This applies whatever the size of the project. CDM regulations 2007 will help you to:
Improve health & safety in the industry
Have the right people for the right job at the right time to manage the risks onsite
Focus on effective planning and manage the risk and not the paperwork
CDM 2007 places legal duties on virtually everyone involved in construction work.
As a CDM-Coordinator I will give help and advice particularly to smaller businesses that may not have a lot of knowledge of this regulation. When I do find problems I will aim to deal with the issues in a reasonable and fair way. However, serious breaches of health & safety legislation on a construction project could result in construction work having to be stopped by the Health & Safety Executive or the local authority and additional work may be needed to rectify matters. The principles of the enforcement policy are proportionality, targeting, consistency, transparency and accountability. The HSE will focus on serious problems and not trivialities.
Jim Slater
CDM REGULATIONS 2007
