The poor record of fatalities and life-changing accidents in the construction industry is a matter of the greatest societal importance economically and morally. It is considered that most accidents are preventable with better management of design and health and safety (H&S) risk at the pre-construction stage of projects. The Construction (Design and Management) 2015 Regulations (CDM 2015), a transposition of European Council Directive 1992/57/EEC into UK law, imposes duties on specified dutyholders in relation to management of H&S on construction projects. The Regulations require dutyholders to possess appropriate skills, knowledge and experience (SKE) or organisational capability (OC). A literature review exposed a gap in knowledge of the practical implementation of the Regulations to achieve the desired outcomes.
The aim of this study was to investigate and capture best H&S risk management practice and to develop a flexible simulator for CDM 2015 compliance at the pre-construction stage. The objectives were:
• investigation of H&S risk management during the pre-construction stage to synthesise knowledge of the practices and procedures through which CDM 2015 are implemented;
• analysis of contractual provisions on CDM duties;
• definition of organisational structures adopted for performance of CDM duties and the associated interfaces and information flows within project supply chains;
• development of categories and measures of SKE/OC for selection of project participants;
• development of recommendations towards practice improvement and policy review; and
• development of a prototype of an advanced pre-construction H&S risk management simulator (PRECOSIM).
Project conclusions are as follows.
(i) The H&S management capabilities of many clients, who have the greatest influence on H&S outcomes, are often lacking.
(ii) The flexibility in the regulations concerning timing of appointment of the Principal Designer (PD), the coordinator at the pre-construction stage, has led to their late appointment.
(iii) The introduction of the Safety Schemes In Procurement (SSIP) certification system, an industry-wide SKE/OC accreditation scheme, has produced some improvements but there are still flaws to be addressed.
(iv) The quality of documents and information mandated by the Regulations to be produced is often poor.
(v) The current insurance system on projects leads to fragmentation of teams, which undermines collaborative risk management.
(vi) UK standard contracts provide for H&S duties in general terms with the expectation that users will draft the details as part of the contract documents for the particular project. However, this leaves too much to the competence of the drafter of the contract documents, which cannot always be guaranteed.
The recommendations are as follows.
(i) To empower clients there is need for criteria for assessing their capability and a gateway regime that ensures such capability very early in the project cycle. The gateway regime should impose a duty on clients/PDs to submit certain documents evidencing client capability, timely appointment of PDs and SKE/OC of dutyholders well in advance of commencement of work on site.
(ii) Research is needed to define baselines against which documents produced are assessed for quality. The underwriting procedures of the insurance sector could provide incentives for improving H&S document quality through a link between such quality and premiums.
(iii) The contract drafting committees for the industry’s standard contracts need to revisit the adequacy of CDM related provisions in their contracts.
(iv) The integrated project insurance system, which requires the client to take out a single policy covering key supply chain members, offers the potential of removing impediments to collaborative H&S risk management.
