If "construction work" is being out in-house - with all parties (duty-holders) in-house personnel - does the work fall under the new regs? Scenario - water pipes from one building to another on our site needs to be replaced, as do the water pumps in building A. In-house engineers (designer) / plant maintenance (electrical) / digger operator - all deemed competent to perform their respective tasks

Yes CDM applies, CDM applies in some way or another to all construction work! You will need to consider the following: -> Construction Phase Plan will be needed -> F10 needs to be submitted if notifiable -> H&S File is not needed....as long as there is only one contractor working on site -> Even though all duty holders are in house, the regs still require communication between duty holders so that something to be aware of -> You will still have the requirements of Schedule 3 to think about (if any of it is relevant - I'm not sure suggest you have a look) -> Make sure you are aware of all the duties for all the duty holders so that they can be fulfilled. Do not think that because its all in house it doesn't really matter, an HSE Inspector wont see it that way! Just a few points which I see that get missed a lot, some food for thought perhaps :)