For designers
Does appointing a separate principal designer remove the architect's CDM duties?
Short answer
No. Appointing a principal designer moves the coordination role, not your own duties as a designer. Regulation 9 of CDM 2015 applies to anyone who prepares or modifies a design, whoever else is appointed. You still have to take account of the pre-construction information, eliminate foreseeable risks where you can, reduce or control what you cannot eliminate, tell the principal designer about the risks that remain, and provide sufficient information with the design.
What stays with you
- Make sure the client knows their duties
Regulation 9(1): a designer must not commence work in relation to a project unless satisfied that the client is aware of the duties owed by the client under the Regulations.
- Design out the risk where you can
Regulation 9(2): when preparing or modifying a design, take into account the general principles of prevention and any pre-construction information, to eliminate, so far as is reasonably practicable, foreseeable risks to anyone building, maintaining or cleaning the structure, or using it as a workplace.
- Reduce or control what you cannot design out
Regulation 9(3): take steps to reduce or, if that is not possible, control those risks through subsequent design work, and provide information about them.
- Tell the principal designer
Regulation 9(3)(b): provide information to the principal designer about the risks that remain in your design.
- Issue enough information with the design
Regulation 9(4): sufficient information about the design, construction and maintenance of the structure to help the client, other designers and contractors do their own jobs.
What changes when someone else is principal designer
| Task | Yours | The principal designer's |
|---|---|---|
| Designing out risk in your own design | Yes | No |
| Telling somebody about the risks you could not design out | Yes | Collects and coordinates them |
| Coordinating between designers | Cooperate | Yes, regulation 11(5) |
| Assembling the pre-construction information | Contribute | Yes, regulation 11(6) |
| Preparing the health and safety file | Provide information for it | Yes, regulation 12(5) |
| Liaising with the principal contractor | No | Yes, regulation 11(7) |
In short: you remain responsible for your design. Somebody else becomes responsible for making the pieces fit together and for the information reaching the people who need it.
Why that is a good trade for most practices
The regulation 9 duties are design duties. Most designers are already doing them, because they are close to what good design work involves anyway: knowing what you are asking somebody to build, and saying what is difficult about it.
The regulation 11 and 12 duties are a different kind of work: chasing information from other consultants, keeping a register of what is missing, writing a pre-construction information pack, liaising with the principal contractor, and maintaining a health and safety file to the end of the job. That is administration, and it needs a system rather than goodwill.
What ClearCDM asks you for
One short form per project, taking around ten minutes: the risks your design creates and leaves behind, in whatever format you already keep them, usually your own drawings or risk register. We do not ask you to rewrite anything into our template. What that covers.
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 9: duties of designers legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 11: duties of a principal designer legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 12: construction phase plan and health and safety file legislation.gov.uk
- HSE: designers, roles and responsibilities hse.gov.uk
Hand us the CDM principal designer role
You keep the design appointment. Build your client's quote in about two minutes and send them the link to check and send on, so the appointment is theirs and the admin is not yours.
Build your client's quote →Not sure yet? read how it works for practices.