HSE information sheet

Construction (Design and Management)

Regulations 1994: The role of the designer
Construction Sheet No 41
Introduction
This information sheet gives guidance on the duties of
the designer under the Construction (Design and
Management) Regulations 1994 (CDM Regulations). If
you are a designer (see below), you have specific legal
duties to carry out.
The CDM Regulations are aimed at improving the overall
management and co-ordination of health, safety and
welfare throughout all stages of a construction project to
reduce the large numbers of serious and fatal accidents
and cases of ill health which occur every year in the
construction industry.
The CDM Regulations place duties on all those who can
contribute to the health and safety of a construction
project. Duties are placed upon clients, designers and
contractors and the Regulations create a new duty holder
- the planning supervisor. They also introduce new
documents - health and safety plans and the health and
safety file.
The degree of detail as well as the time and effort
required to comply with your legal duties need only be in
proportion to the nature, size and level of health and
safety risks involved in the project. Therefore for small
projects with minimal health and safety risks, you will
only be required to take simple, straightforward steps and
few, if any, specialist skills will be needed.
Who are designers?
Designers are organisations or individuals who carry out
design work for a construction project, including temporary
works design. Designers may include architects,
consulting engineers, quantity surveyors, chartered
surveyors, technicians, specifiers, principal contractors
and specialist contractors. The term design is a wide term
under the CDM Regulations and includes drawings, design
details, specifications and bills of quantity.
The designers role in health and safety throughout
the project
You play a key role within the construction project in
ensuring that the health and safety of those who are to
construct, maintain or repair a structure are considered
during the design process. If you dont do this it could
delay the project, make it much more difficult for
contractors to devise safe systems of work and cause the
client to make costly changes so that the structure can
be maintained safely.

As the design of a project develops from the initial

concept through to a detailed specification, you and other
designers may be involved. Designers from all
disciplines have a contribution to make in avoiding and
reducing health and safety risks which are inherent in the
construction process and subsequent work (eg,
maintenance). The most important contribution a
designer can make to improve health and safety will
often be during the concept and feasibility stage when
the main considerations will be about the different design
options which are open so that potential hazards can be
avoided. Once the design process moves into detailed
design and specification, designers can continue to make
a significant contribution to avoidance and reduction of
risks to health and safety, particularly in relation to the
specification of materials and substances.
Example
A designer will be able to determine the location of the
structure on the site. This could affect how close
construction plant has to come to railway lines, roads and
overhead power lines.
Example
By specifying a non-fishtail brick tie, a designer can
eliminate the risk of cuts and eye injuries from
temporarily exposed ties.
What are the designers duties under the CDM
Regulations?
You have the following duties in relation to health and
safety under the CDM Regulations:

make clients aware of their duties;

give due regard to health and safety in your design

work;

provide adequate information about the health and

safety risk of the design to those who need it;

co-operate with the planning supervisor and, where

appropriate other designers involved in the project.

Make clients aware of their duties

You should not start preparing any design work until the
client is aware of their duties under the CDM Regulations.
You have a legal duty to explain to the client their
responsibilities under the Regulations. You could make

reference to guidance published by the Health and Safety

Commission (these are referenced at the end of this sheet)
and HSE. There is a specific Construction Information
Sheet on the role of the client which will help you. Where
appropriate, you could advise the client to seek
professional advice for help in complying with their duties.
Give due regard to health and safety in your design
work
When you carry out your design work you have to
consider the potential effect of your design on the health
and safety of those carrying out the construction work
and others affected by the work. To do this you will need
to assess the risks of your design which can reasonably
be foreseen. Usually this will include risks to those
building, maintaining or repairing the structure as well as
those who might be affected by this work (eg members
of the public).
To ensure that risks to health and safety are fully
considered in your design work, you will find it helpful to
take the following steps:

identify the significant health and safety hazards

likely to be associated with the design and how it
may be constructed and maintained;

consider the risk from the hazards which arise as a

result of the design being incorporated into the
project;

if possible, alter the design to avoid the risk, or

where this is not reasonably practicable, reduce it.

When you consider health and safety in your design

work, you will need, so far as reasonably practicable, to
avoid or reduce risks by applying a series of steps
known as the hierarchy of risk control or principles of
prevention and protection. This simply involves the
following:

consider if the hazard can be prevented from

arising so that the risk can be avoided (eg, alter the
design to avoid the risk);

if this cannot be achieved, the risk should be

combated at source (eg, ensure the design details
of items to be lifted include attachment points for
lifting);

failing this, priority should be given to measures to

control the risk that will protect all people (eg allow
a one-way system for delivery and spoil removal
vehicles);

only as a last resort should measures to control

risk by means of personal protection be assumed
(eg, use of safety harnesses).

When considering health and safety in your design work,

you are only expected to do what is reasonable at the
time the design is prepared. It may be possible for
hazards which cannot be addressed at the feasibility
stage to be looked at during detailed design. In deciding
what is reasonably practicable, the risk to health and
safety produced by a feature of the design has to be
weighed against the cost of excluding the feature.
The overall design process does not need to be
dominated by a concern to avoid all risks during the
construction phase and maintenance. However, a
judgement has to be made by weighing up one
consideration against another so the cost is counted not
just in financial terms, but also those of fitness for
purpose, aesthetics, buildability or environmental impact.
By applying these principles, it may be possible to make
decisions at the design stage which will avoid or reduce
risks during construction work. In many cases, the large
number of design considerations will allow a number of
equally valid design solutions. What is important is your
approach to the solutions of design problems. This
should involve a proper exercise of judgement which
takes account of health and safety issues.
Providing information on health and safety
When you have carried out your design work and
concluded that there are risks which it is not reasonably
practicable to avoid, information needs to be given about
risks which remain. This information needs to be included
with the design to alert others to the risks which they
cannot reasonably be expected to know. This is
essential for the parties who have to use the design
information. For example, the planning supervisor who
has to ensure the pre-tender stage health and safety plan
and the health safety file are prepared, the principal
contractor and other contractors who use the design
information a n dt he actual individuals carrying out the work.
If your basic design assumptions affect health or safety,
or health and safety risks are not obvious from the
standard design document, you should provide
additional information. The information should include a
broad indication of your assumptions about the
precautions for dealing with the risks. The information
will need to be conveyed in a clear manner; it could be
included on drawings, in written specifications or outline
method statements. The level of detail to be recorded
will be determined by the nature of the hazards involved
and the associated level of risk.
Co-operation
Even on small projects it is unlikely that all the design
work will be carried out by one designer. You will
therefore need to liaise with the planning supervisor and
other designers so that the work can be co-ordinated to
see how the different aspects of designs interact with

each other and affect health and safety. Liaison is also

needed so that the planning supervisor can ensure
designers are fulfilling their duties.
Where there is an overlap in the design work you may
need to exchange drawings and other design
information which is relevant to health and safety. If a
common format for the exchange of information is
agreed or set down by the planning supervisor, this can
help the process of co-operation. In addition, agreement
will need to be reached to ensure health and safety is
considered eg, agreeing acceptable access
arrangements for services in ducts and above ceilings.

Further information
HSE priced and free publications are available by mail
order from HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk
CO10 2WA Tel: 01787 881165 Fax: 01787 313995
Website: www.hsebooks.co.uk (HSE priced publications
are also available from bookshops.)
For information about health and safety ring HSE's
InfoLine Tel: 08701 545500 Fax: 02920 859260 e-mail:
[email protected] or write to HSE
Information Services, Caerphilly Business Park,
Caerphilly CF83 3GG. You can also visit HSEs website:
www.hse.gov.uk

Law
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994
Construction (Design and Management) (Amendment)
Regulations 2000
References and further information
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994 SI 1994 No 3140 HMSO 1995 ISBN 0 11 043845 0
Construction (Design and Management) (Amendment)
Regulations 2000 SI 2000/2380 Stationery Office 2000
ISBN 0 11 099804 9
Managing health and safety in construction:
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994: Approved Code of Practice and guidance
HSG224 HSE Books 2001 ISBN 0 7176 2139 1
Designing for health and safety in construction HSE
Books 1995 ISBN 0 7176 0807 7
A guide to managing health and safety in construction
HSE Books 1995 ISBN 0 7176 0755 0
Bone, S. Information on site safety for designers of
smaller building projects Contract Research Report 72
HSE Books 1995 ISBN 0 7176 0777 1
Construction Information Sheets:
No 39
No 40
No 42
No 43
No 44

This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety

Executive. Following the guidance is not compulsory
and you are free to take other action. But if you follow
the guidance you will normally be doing enough to
comply with the law. Health and safety inspectors
seek to ensure compliance with the law and may refer
to this guidance as illustrating good practice.
This publication may be freely reproduced, except for
advertising, endorsement or sale purposes. First
published 4/95. Please acknowledge the source as
HSE.

The role of the client

The role of the planning supervisor
The pre-tender stage health and safety plan
The health and safety plan during the
construction phase
The health and safety file

Printed and published by the Health and Safety Executive

Reprinted 6/02

CIS41

C75