Are you looking for someone on the forum to give you a a list of competences that might be required of a CDM consultant as oppose to generic questions that might be asked at any job interview ?

Its questions to ask at an interview as a way of learning about the insividual's suitability.

Competence is not in doubt.

Thanks Rus, plenty of food for thought there.

Should help sort the wheat from the chaff.

The concept of "Designer Risk Assessment" was discredited many years ago, including by HSE.
Notification is a CDM Client function.

Turning this question around a bit, why does this employer feel a need for consultancy support in this area?
If his own designers have or perceive an uncertainty in fulfilling this or PD role, then the competent consultant should at best have a short-term brief to build that competency within your design house.

No disrespect to the ex CDM-Cs out there, but CDM 2015 does not afford them a specific role. Bringing in external support can mean paying through the nose for what is essentially administrative support (i.e. fetching and carrying information, building a H&S File) whilst having little influence on mitigation of risk associated with the design, or building competence and confidence within your own design team.

Again: Why do you want to employ this person?

Personally I've always found the CDM regs (in whatever format) to be very wooley and vague.

The whole range of design and construction activities, not to mention the various commercial ways that construction projects can be arranged/managed are so wide and diverse that its difficult to see how CDM will ever be anything but vague.

I think within HASAWA and the Management regs contain enough powers/requirements for the HSE to take action in the event of an accident etc

with all due respect I would get in a competent H&S bod to sit in on the interview as the lead person re CDM as it appears that those interviewing may not be competent in this area

in my view the regs themselves do not really count as its proper management from begining to end so no site problems exist thats needed & not a paper exercise as CDM tends to be that counts and proper management is rare

Maybe you could ask
"What do you know about the CDM 2015 Regs and what do you think the key points are?

"How do you think you can help a Principal Designer fulfill their role?"

We've always considered that the role of Planning Supervisor / CDMC / Principal Designer should be a corporate appointment since 1993 (No that's not a typo - I ran my first CDM course in May 2003 and we were trialling our approach to how we implemented our designer and PS duties from about the same time, with the expectation that the regs would come into force on 31 December 1993 - the deadline for implementing the parent Directive).

The difference between CDM 1994/2007 and 2015 was that there was plenty of time to plan for new/amended legislation and the contrast with the rushed approach to CDM 2015 such that

We still don't have guidance aimed at large commercial clients. To be drafted by Construction Clients Group.

We still don't have a "Busy Builder's" leaflet to help domestic clients. Why a householder would be looking for a leaflet with such a title escapes me!

So I've been a CDM Advisor on 100s of projects where we have been appointed as PS, CDMC, and now PD + mostly more recently CDM Advisor to the Client where others have been appointed to provided these roles.

The panic has been such that large clients still don't get it. We got an OJEU notice last week from a Government Agency wanting to set up a Framework Contract for the provision of PD and CDM Advisor services. The latter, yes, the PD bit not legal, unless Framework expanded to give PD control of the pre-construction phase (e.g. as Project Manager). We are routinely explaining to clients that if they use procurement routes such as Design & Build, the role of PD must go to the successful bidder (directly or via the bidder's own supply chain).

Whenever I am asked to give a brief explanation (internally within my organisation) about the differences of CDM 2015: My simple answer is that:

1. Unlike previous versions of these regulations, the HSE have not drafted these, but they appear to have been originally created by a political think tank.

2. Whichever CDM/PD advisor they speak to, they will get a different explanation depending on how they wish to spin their answer.

The elephant is that the CDM-C (advisor) is now supposed to have now been kicked firmly into the long grass and not to metamorphosis again!

Getting back to the original question, when we appointed someone last year, it was not what they knew about the legislation which mattered, but their knowledge of application of CDM through design and construction.