Hi folks!

We have a construction project going on at the minute and I have been notified today by the Principal Contarctor (we are the client) that there has been an incident on site involving a subcontractor and they have notified the HSE. They are investigating it and taking the lead on it as its a technical issue. However should the HSE get involved my company will have to prove that they have appointed a competent PC and that we are monitoring their performance.  I am carrying out enquiries at the moment internally and although I havent got the full facts it so far appears that a consultant was brought in to carry out the procurement process.

My query is - do you think that the response "we appointed a consultant to appoint competent CDM duty holders" cuts the mustard?

Any advice would be fab

a review of client duties under the new cdm regs requires a fair bit more of client involvement than under the previous regs. http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/summary.htm 

Having attended an IOSH event as they were coming in, the purpose was to achieve more client involvement throughout the process, So i would review what they say and decisions made by the contractors with reference to design, phasing etc.

At the time there was a perception from attendees that clients may not have sufficient involvement to meet with the regs as envisaged. 

obviously the best advice would be to take appropriate advice, from someone competent, but a re-read of the regs will give guidance as to what questions you need to evaluate. 

also there may be specific guidance/checklists to the type of incident that occured, specific to tasks and activities being undertaken. 

In general, however the investigation is going to look everywhere, so having reviewed everything, got it together, indexed, and to hand would be a sensible use of time, in addition to finding out more about what happened, and what will prevent in future.    

best wishes