Client appoints a PC for enabling works.

They now want a scaffolding firm they have appointed to start on site under the PC. Usually the enabling works finish and these operations would follow on under PC for main works.

I know the PC would have overall responsibility for the site and the monitoring of this contractor however the PC has not been involved in checks and the site team have no experience in scaffolding. I would question whether the PC is competent to address the health and safety issues likely to be involved or satisfy the competency requirements under the Stage 2 Assessment criteria. Am I correct?

Any comments or advice would be welcome.

I work with a government organisation and they use abbreviations. It is infuriating. I waste a lot of time trying to find out what they mean. Is it possible that we could do away with abbreviations which are not in common usage on this forum PLEASE.

PC? Police Constable? personal computer?

PC in this instance stands for Principal Contractor and is in frequent use on this forum.

CDM regs are quite clear on duties, one of the duties of principle contractor (PC) is to ensure that all sub contractor companies are competent. where did you get info Pc completed no checks?

Perhaps!! the scaffolding contractor may have been employed by another contractor, who was employed by the PC, the sub contractor employed by PC would be expected under CDM to complete the check??, to me this is were CDM gets interesting!!. Remember its everyone's duty to check competence.

The bigger issue for me on this is that you have stated the site team have no expierience in checking scaffolding: again the question of competence, I dont know what type of project you are refering to, but I would be surprised if the site team had no expeirience of inspecting/checking scaffolding.
The process for this would be something like this:

1. Scaffold errected and scaffold checked by site team along with scaffolder, handover certificate given to site team, if all good.
2. The scaffolding should be visually inspected each day by the users/site team for any obvious concerns.
3. Every 7 days the scaffolding should be inspected by competent person and findings recorded in the site register. this could be the site team or and external inspector
4. Depending on the legnth of time the scaffolding is erected for, perhaps at an interval agreed, scaffolding inspected by the scafolding company who erected it, or agian by an external means.

Obviously there are many other factors that would be taken into consideration depending on project requirements.

gt is an acronym for?
Sorry, couldn't resist.

It isn't an acronym for anything it is a forum identifyer.

Sorry the statement of a PC without scaffold competence does not sit with me well. Hence he needs to buy it in unless of course the scaffold need was not in the original contract. In the latter case the contractors maxim applies:- Untendered works given post contract are a source of major profit.

We do need to be careful about stating that there is no compatence for a or b or c. A construction company would be expected to have such competency as a matter of routine. If it is a task not normally done then the answer is to subcontract the work. The same applies to crane use under the Construction Plant Association (CPA) standard T&Cs of hire.

Bob