Posted By Ronofcam
Hi chaps,

Is there anything in legislation/ACOP that says that a CDM coordinator cannot/should not work for the same company as the main contractor? I realise that in the interests of impartiality it would be better to have an entirely independent CDM coordinator, but in some cases I assume this is not reasonably practicable.

Thanks in advance!

Posted By Robert K Lewis
Ron

Perish the thought that I would argue with you over this. The real issues for any organisation undertaking more than one role are those of confidentiality. This can mean a segregation of line reports from the construction operations management line.

Bob

Posted By Ken C
Gents

The main concern that I have seen voiced by the HSE is that of impartiality. In most large companies now the appointment of the CDM-C is deemed to be a corporate one. IE, no one person does it all but a company accepts the role. This generally works but sometimes it can be difficult to prove impartiality.

The company that I previously worked for was a Designer who undertook the CDM-C role as well. In this situation the CDM-C was always from a different operating division so could not be put under any managerial pressure to accept something that was wrong. This worked well, and I know the HSE was happy with the arrangements when we were visited as part of their Designer initiative.

I seem to remember a rather strange example, on the [reference removed] for CDM prior to implementation IIRC, where a Designer was also the PS (at the time). He had made a mistake on the Design and it was picked up later but he needed to take some action. The HSE advised him that he needed to write to himself (one duty holder to the other) advising him of error and requesting it be put right! Anyone else see this?

Regards

Ken C.

Posted By Bob Kennedy
Why would you want to take on the burden of responsibility & liability?

There is proven conflict of interest, and statements about impartiality are a myth.

Posted By Liz Bennett
Principal Contractors with in house design capability are likely to be the best CDMCs. Most of CDMC role is about data management and facilitation - being the Client's best friend for H&S. If the CDMC is from the PC camp then you get early contractor involvement with design decisions, which just has to be an advantage.
Liz Bennett

Posted By ken mosley
I feel somehow that this thread is becoming slightly over complicated. There is nothing in the regs to prevent an organisation undertaking both roles of CDM-C and PC.
Impartiality should not be an issue, well not on most contracts. The bulk of a co-ordinators work should be done before a Principal Contractor is appointed. Often post contract the role of CDM-C is transferred to the PC, particularly on D&B projects. In the main it seems to work quite well, but I am speaking subjectively.

Ken