Afternoon all,
Information just received from the Federation of Archaeological Managers and Employers (FAME) as issued to associated members recently (apologies for the formatting):
CDM Regulations 2007 and Archaeology
Notes of a meeting at the Health and Safety Executive, Rose Court, London, 14 November 2012
Disclaimer: the following notes are a summary of informal discussions with HSE, and are for information only. They are not to be taken as a definitive HSE interpretation of the CDM Regulations 2007, nor as a presumption of the outcome of the review, which will be subject to consultation and other external factors.
Present: Russell Adfield, Giles Meredith (HSE); Adrian Tindall, Andrew Townsend, Dan Poore (FAME)
The revised Regs
The revised CDM Regs will be based on ‘copy out’ from the EU Temporary or Mobile Construction Sites (TMCS) Directive; aim is to make them more compliant with the Directive and remove any over/under regulation anomalies in the present Regs; the revised Regs may be simplified, but cannot be lower than the standards set out in the present Regs or the EU Directive.
The basic roles and responsibilities of Client, Designer, Principal Contractor and Contractor are likely to remain, though there is likely to be a stronger emphasis on Client involvement in the revised Regs.
The co-ordination role in the revised Regs is likely to be different. It may involve co-ordinators at the pre-construction and construction phases (ie as part of the procurement team) rather than the current arrangement where co-ordination is the role of a single CDM-Coordinator who is often outside the procurement process; the aim is to ensure co-ordination is embedded in procurement at the earliest stage, rather than being an ‘add on’ – under the present Regs they are often appointed later and are thus less effective.
All technical content of the Regs is likely to remain.
‘Competent’ in the current Regs lies outside the Directive, and will probably be replaced by ‘capable’ ‘trained’, ‘qualified’, or similar.
The ACoP will probably be replaced by shorter ‘Guidance’.
Timetable – Draft regulations to HSE Board December 2012/January 2013, 3-month public consultation Spring 2013, implementation April 2014.
Notifiable projects
Three archaeological scenarios for potentially-notifiable projects were discussed: pre/post-determination field evaluation, pre-construction excavation and excavation in parallel with construction work.
In all three cases, the HSE view was that the archaeological works would be considered ‘construction’ and therefore notifiable under the Regs.
The 30-day/500 person day threshold for CDM notification applies to the entire duration of the construction project, not just the duration of the archaeological works.
The HSE view is therefore that virtually all development-led archaeological site investigation is notifiable under the CDM Regs.
Principal Contractors
The HSE view is that archaeological contractors should not normally be appointed as PCs.
The current and the proposed new Regs are likely to require a PC to take oversight of the entire project, from design to construction, and organisations appointed as PC should be capable of discharging all the duties set out in the current Regulations 22-24.
There would have to be wholly exceptional circumstances for an archaeological contractor to be considered an appropriate PC, for example where an archaeological investigation is totally divorced from other phases of the construction project; in these circumstances an archaeological contractor might be one of a succession of PCs.
However the HSE view is that this is not the intention of the Regs, nor should it under any circumstances confer on the archaeological contractor responsibility for the work of any non-archaeological contractor.
HSE would normally regard archaeological contractors as specialist Contractors (and archaeological consultants on occasions as Designers) within the terms of the current Regs.
Where archaeological work takes place in advance of any other construction works, the Client or CDM Co-ordinator may choose to fulfil the role of PC. However, unless they maintain a continuous presence on site, the archaeological contractor would become de facto PC, responsible for site inductions, site perimeter, traffic management, site welfare, etc.
Research excavations and other work
The CDM Regs apply only to archaeological investigation occasioned by development - they do not apply to research investigation, work undertaken by voluntary groups, etc.
Action points
FAME to establish an H&S Working Group, ideally integrating the existing CDM-Archaeology Group with H&S specialists from member organisations.
FAME to canvass members’ views on the future role of archaeological contractors and consultants within the CDM Regs, and feedback the results to HSE.
Working Group to draft guidance on CDM Regs and archaeology – HSE will comment on drafts and may consider endorsing it.
HSE have offered to attend a FAME Forum on H&S issues in June 2013, should one be arranged.
AST, 30/11/12
Simon