Understanding CDM 2015 Designer Duties

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Mike Webster - Understanding CDM 2015 Designer DutiesI gave a presentation at the Institution of Structural Engineers Small Practitioners Conference on 26 June 2018.  That presentation focused on understanding the CDM 2015 Designer Duties.
This post contains the video of my presentation.  The slides can also be downloaded.

Watch the presentation

This presentation is split into two parts, and covers:

Part 1: The context for CDM 2015

  • What do we mean by a health and safety offence?
  • Where has HSE taken enforcement action?
  • What are the implications of getting it wrong?

Part 2: Understanding CDM 2015

  • What do we need to understand about our responsibilities?
  • What do we need to understand about Regulation 9?
  • What if we need to take on the Principal Designer role?

Download the presentation slides

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    Other articles on CDM 2015 Designer Duties

    Articles covering the following issues are also available on the MPW R&R web site.

    Detailed clause-by-clause comparisons of CDM 2015 and CDM 2007

    Detailed clause-by-clause comparisons of the changes between the CDM 2015 Regulations and CDM 2007 are available in this post.

    CDM 2015 Designer Duties – Designing for maintenance

    CDM 2015 Regulation 9 requires designers to eliminate or reduce risks to those involved in maintenance so far as reasonably practical or, if that isn’t possible, to provide information on significant residual risks.

    Designers may not be aware of the guidance available to help them.  To address that, this article provides an overview of the issues and highlights the guidance available to civil and structural engineers on contemporary industry practice.

    CDM 2015 Designer Duties – Guidance on considering temporary works in permanent works design

    CDM 2015 Regulation 9 requires Designers to eliminate, reduce or control the risks through design.  Where it is not possible to eliminate risks, they should provide information on the significant residual risks that could not be designed out.

    As part of this, permanent works designers are expected to understand how the structure can be constructed and the requirement for temporary works.

    Permanent works designers may not be aware of the range of guidance available to help them consider temporary works in their designs.  To address that, this article provides an overview of the issues and signposts to the guidance available to civil and structural engineers, much of which is free to download.

    What designers can do to minimise the risks of deterioration

    This article discusses the impact of deterioration on the safety of concrete structures. This is illustrated by examples where deterioration has led concrete structures to collapse. The article suggests steps that designers can take to minimise the risks of deterioration to safety and discharge their CDM 2015 Designer Duties.

    Principal Designer Duties

    Since CDM 2015 came into force, the Principal Designer duties have generated a lot of discussion and questions as organisations try to work out how to fulfill the role.

    A range of organisations (including HSE and solicitors) has published discussions on key issues relating to the Principal Designer duties.  For ease of reference, I have collated these sources and provided links to them in this post.

    About the author:

    Dr Mike Webster is a chartered civil and structural engineer (FICE, FIStructE) with over 30 years' experience.  He specialises in construction and structural safety, CDM and risk, and founded MPW R&R to provide Consulting, Forensic and Expert Witness services in those areas.

    Mike has worked on the design, appraisal and site supervision of building and bridge structures.  He has developed guidance for assessing the safety of existing structures.  Mike led an independent review of CDM 1994 and the independent evaluation of CDM 2007.  He also led the review of the use of CDM 2007 in the construction of London 2012.

    Mike has been instructed as an expert witness by both defence and prosecution teams in cases involving allegations of gross negligence manslaughter, breaches of the Health and Safety at Work Act and the CDM Regulations and the appeal of enforcement notices.

    Mike is the author of around 20 published reports and papers on construction health and safety and the CDM Regulations.  He is also the author of a range of articles on CDM 2015.   He is a member of Structural-Safety and the Institution of Structural Engineers Health and Safety Panel.

    For more information email Mike at mike.webster@mpwrandr.co.uk or give him a call on 07969 957471.


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