You cannot contract out of statute law and if they are manipulating the contracts to avoid an F10, PD etc. to just save money then they are contravening the CDM regulations. If however the scheme has a break for example between demolition and new build for genuine reasons then I believe they are not. You must be confident that any reasons will stand up to scrutiny. For example a lot of sites are demolished with planning permission for a new build that are unlikely to go ahead in the short term. However the regulations refer to a project as a project which includes or is intended to include construction work and includes all planning, design, management or other work involved in a project until the end of the construction phase. Therefore you have to be careful for example if the demolition and new build are back to back contracts then you should submit an F10, have a PD etc.

I think you need to give some more details about the work/job involved, but without giving information which could identify the client etc. Regards

The client is preparing a PCI and we will have a CPP in place when we have all the pertinent info.

More than one contractor likely to be involved with the project? Principal Designer and Principal Contractor must be appointed. Notification then comes into it if the project: (a) last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project; or (b) exceed 500 person days. Splitting it into three distinct projects is possible and if each one is not notifiable then so be it. It is legal. However, the cost of notifying the project is negligible and it's unlikely that splitting it into three projects will avoid the cost of having to appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor. So can't see where the savings will be in that respect.

The fact that the works occur on three separate building does give the client options. However these separate contracts must be match by the procurement process, three sets of PCI & CPP, budgets etc. that can clearly demonstrate that the works have always been considered by the client as three separate projects. I have worked on large complexes where this was the case. If this is not the case and at the last minute they have split a larger contract into three smaller separate contracts employing the same contractor without an robust reason (which there appears not to be) then they contravene the CDM regulations. If it looks and feels like a single project the HSE may deem it so but I suspect it will only be an issue if something goes wrong. However as others have pointed out the bid trigger in CDM 2015 is multiple contractors and not the F10.

If the client is happy to try and twist the CDM regs so it suites their own needs e.g no notification, its makes you wonder what other safety legislation they might try to twist to also suite their needs...

Valid point regarding FFI - but please bear in mind there will be ALOT of non-notifiable construction work taking place as the threshold for notification has increased. An average of 10 construction operatives working on a site for 49 days is less than the 500 person day threshold - how many projects are there like that? Think about all the domestic construction work too.

You're out-of-date. Notification is on the basis of those limits applying on SITE, not the whole Project. Could be that Notification thresholds aren't relevant on multiple-site projects. A subtle change from CDM2007 to CDM2015 requirements.

Enjoy a good argument do you Ron? Opening a comment by say "You're out-of-date" is sure way to get one if you are not sure of your facts. I've quoted directly from the CDM2015 guidance and regulations where it states PROJECT, not SITE. Perhaps I should have put the exact words in: "A project is notifiable if the construction work on a construction site is scheduled to — " For definition: "“project” means a project which includes or is intended to include construction work and includes all planning, design, management or other work involved in a project until the end of the construction phase" Notification only ever had the dates of the construction phase anyway, although under CDM2007 one would get the notification off as soon as possible during the design phase whereas CDM2015 only requires it as soon as practicable before the construction phase starts. "Could be that Notification thresholds aren't relevant on multiple-site projects." Could be? That's not a very factual statement for someone pointing out that "you're out-of-date". On the matter of multiple sites, I'll quote directly from the online F10 notification: "Check this box if this project has multiple site locations". Have a look for yourself, it's over here: https://extranet.hse.gov.uk/lfserver/external/f10 The term "beyond sell-by-date" springs to mind.

sorry to come in here at the end but it would appear that this seems to be happening a bit more often than we think. Could anyone say (apart from the obvious if something did go wrong) what would be the ramifications to a client and a contractor(single) carrying out the works on a project that was not notified and had been completed but was reported at a later date?

6foot4 Interesting to note that the definition of project includes ALL work before the construction phase as well as the work on site. Now how many companies have I seen around a design meeting table?? Two separate architects Landscape architect Electrical Designer Mechanical designer QS Foundation Designer Built Environment Designer Client Client H&S Consultant Client Project Manager Good eh

Oddly enough I worked on a project some years back where we had a large number of sites with fairly similar tasks spread around the south east. It was decided to lump all of them together under one F10. Separating them into different F10s, CPPs, etc, would have been difficult but not impossible.

Why are they affraid to notify? What have they got to hide, notification doesnt cost anything for christ sake.