Principal designer
Do subcontractors count as contractors under CDM?
Short answer
Yes. CDM 2015 defines a contractor as anyone who carries out, manages or controls construction work in the course of a business. Nothing in that definition depends on who engaged them, so a subcontractor engaged by the main builder is a contractor in exactly the same way the builder is. That means a builder plus one subcontracted trade is a project with more than one contractor, and the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing.
Why the contract chain does not matter
People reasonably assume that because they engaged one builder, they have one contractor. The regulations do not look at the contract chain. They look at who is carrying out, managing or controlling construction work in the course of a business. A subcontracted roofer is doing exactly that, whoever pays them.
HSE's guidance for contractors treats subcontracted firms as contractors in their own right, with their own duties under regulation 15, including planning and managing their own work and cooperating with the principal contractor.
What this changes
Almost every domestic project. Very few builders do groundworks, structure, roofing, electrics, gas and plastering with their own staff. Once one trade is brought in, the project has more than one contractor, and three things follow:
- The client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing, before the construction phase begins.
- The principal contractor, not the individual contractor, draws up the construction phase plan under regulation 12(1).
- A health and safety file is required, because the file duty only applies to projects with more than one contractor.
The one case where it does not
A genuinely single contractor project: one firm, using its own employees, doing all of the work. Employees are not separate contractors, so a builder with four people on the payroll is one contractor. In that case there is no principal designer appointment, no principal contractor and no health and safety file, but CDM still applies: the contractor must draw up a construction phase plan under regulation 15(5), and the client still has duties.
Worth testing honestly. If the answer relies on the builder never bringing anyone in, ask whether that is actually true for the electrics and the gas. If it is not, the project is a multi-contractor project and it is better to know that at design stage than halfway through.
What this means for you
Clients: ask your builder, in writing, which parts of the work they will subcontract. The answer settles the question.
Contractors: if you are the one in control of the construction phase and the client has appointed nobody, regulation 7(2) makes you the principal contractor on a domestic project, and regulation 7(1) puts the client's duties on you as well.
Sources
- The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 5: appointment of the principal designer and the principal contractor legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 12: construction phase plan and health and safety file legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 15: duties of contractors legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: contractors, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
Find out where your project stands
The free checker asks six questions and tells you whether the appointment is required, and why.
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