The Health and Safety People Ltd.
Would you like assistance with your documentation?            Take the worry out of upcoming legislation changes            Open up tender list opportunities            Peace of mind that employees are safe            Support when YOU need it            Award winning telephone support line            Minimise your insurance premiums

Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations Postponed

3 April 2006

Last week, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced that the revised Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations will now be implemented in Spring 2007. The revised Regulations will bring together provisions in the existing CDM Regulations 1994 and the Construction (Health Safety and Welfare) (CHSW) Regulations 1996 into one regulatory package.

Originally planned for implementation on 1 October 2006, following a three-month consultation exercise the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) has agreed to postpone the implementation date. The Construction Industry Advisory Committee (CONIAC), CDM Review Working group, fully support the new timetable.

Stephen Williams, HSE’s Chief Inspector of Construction said: “The revised CDM Regulations will replace the two key sets of existing regulations. When we began our review of those regulations, the HSC set us some important and challenging objectives. HSE and its partners believe we are well on the way to producing a set of replacement Regulations which will achieve those objectives, but we would be selling ourselves short if we rushed our proposals through.

“We need more time to make sure we get the changes right and the industry also needs to have adequate time to familiarise itself with the finalised CDM package.

Stephen Ratcliffe from the Construction Confederation said: “We recognise the importance of getting these changes right. Moving the proposed implementation date forward gives us more time to prepare guidance for our members, and this will form an important part of the overall package.”

At its open meeting in December 2005, the HSC discussed a report on the emerging findings of the consultation. It was decided the new regulations should be supported by an Approved Code of Practice (ACoP) and industry-produced guidance.  In order to give industry the necessary time to plan and prepare for the regulatory changes, a final draft of the AcoP needs to be made available by the HSE three months in advance of the regulations coming into force. The HSE will now be working with the industry to co-ordinate the production of industry-specific guidance as agreed by the HSC.

(Source – HSE website 6/3/06)

© 2008 The Health and Safety People Ltd.