Posted By Iain Holland Legally the contractors have a specific duty under CDM regs to pass the information on to the principal contractor. I am unsure of how you would pursue this. Initially you could maybe hold their payment, review the terms of contract, someone other than the principal contractor could contact them. If you were willing to take legal action, discussions with your lawyer would be the most sensible option, although dependant on missing information and associated cost this may not be worthwhile. As you stated this was a reoccurring problem, it would be a good idea to ensure all relevant information is sought prior to the sub contractors being allowed onto site, at quotation stage or as their first task on site. If the information in question is produced throughout the work perhaps during a commissioning / test stage then request that all records are copied to file before leaving the site and followed up by the official certificates / results at a later date. This allows any further sub contractor to continue where an other left off. If you are finding this a repeat problem with the same principle contractor, you may want to review use of this contractor. Iain

Posted By Mike Charleston Stevie You hit the nail on the head with one option when you said "e.g. employ others to provide and counter-charge" if your problem is as stated. Iain and Allan are right in what they have said - but most of what they say has come too late in the process for you now. Legally, contractors have got a specific duty under CDM regs to provide information to the principal contractor but as you have seen, once they are paid off, the missing items would have to be substantial for their contractual deficiency to be pursued. However, a lot of construction work is undertaken with a final retainer which is not payable until X months later (often 5% of the price). You may be able to hit them via this route - after all, the PC is morally/contractually obliged to provide to the client what the contractors fail to deliver, so can limit his potential loss by retaining the final payments (and boy, is he looking for such an excuse in many of the projects that I have known). Have the PC tell them this and remind them of their obligations under CDM in a letter - it is amazing how many will then decide to comply! Next, and assuming no such lever, I suggest chasing the contacts at each company verbally, to remind them of their obligation within CDM Regs and see how they respond. Some just need the reminder. Most others will say yes .... and then ignore you in the hope thay you'll go away (many chasers do so after just one/two attempts). If in the latter group, now is the time to compose a letter for issue by whichever organisation you think will achieve more clout - the PC, Management Contractor, PS or client. In my experience, use the PC because they usually have some influence in respect of future work opportunities. Again, this should remind the contractors about CDM and make the threat that if not provided by date ZZ, independent specialists will be instructed to develop suitable O&M instructions at a cost that will be to their account; deficiencies in site documentation like MS's and certificates will be reported to the client; and of course will ultimately be reported to the HSE/LA (after all, the HSE/LA had been notified that such work was being done, so why not tell them?). I am not at all confident that any action would be taken by HSE/LA but for many contractors, the threat of any such attention will help to persuade them into compliance. After that, call your contact at each organisation EVERY WEEK and tell them that you plan to monitor their progress in this way until the task has been completed. After you have done this a few times, the message starts to sink in. If other people within their organisations are said to be responsible for all/part of the deliverable, insist on making direct contact with them yourself, so that you always know who is supposedly taking action and your later nagging is directed at the most appropriate person (it can be amazing how many names you accumulate during this process but sooner or later, you'll find somebody that has nowhere else to run!). If you are the safety man, your role in this should be supported by Operations - so keep the PC's Project Manager in the frame and seek his advice on any further leverage. Also consider escalating the involvement of others like the PS, Management Contractor, client. This of course depends on the size of project and how closely these people would relate to the problem. Above all, as time goes on, involve the others because they will ultimately have more clout than the "damned safety man"! What's more, Operations people have commercial influence and for future jobs, will see sense in tighter contractual requirements regarding the CDM deliverables. I have seen some contract retainers increase with future projects, simply to reflect this very issue. Follow all this for 3 months and you'll have a much smaller problem! I hope that has been of some help. Mike

Posted By Mike Charleston Karen Interesting to see that you have obviously conducted such follow-up as a PS responsibility. In my view it is the PC who should do that - as much as I would thank anybody that offers to take it off my workload, I wouldn't expect that most of the PS's I have encountered could do a reasonable job of it! The way I see it, the PS is responsible for delivering a File to the client at the end of the project, and will usually want to influence how material is presented in it. However, if I were acting for the PC I would point out that the PS is only responsible for that final step, i.e. after the PC has collected and delivered base materials to the PS, the latter can put it together anyway that suits his/her style. I would resist any PS that required the PC to collate data in a style set by him/her, because that is for the PC's discretion. Mike

Posted By steviezenga Iain, Allan, Mike & Karen, Many thanks for your responses. I have employed all your posted suggestions on this and other projects at one time or another, with varying degrees of success. Mike, for info, I have gone down the HSE route previously, they do take action, unfortunately not restricting themselves to lack of H&S File but opening up to any/all CDM regulation breaches by all Duty-holders. Very messy, can of worms, NOT recommended! With reference to PS production of the H&S File, I have done Files before as PS, (my record Karen is 38 ring-binders), but not having seen a.n. other PS production cannot comment on quality. The Client is the owner and end-user of the File and can, via contractual conditions, determine who is to produce it and it's format and content. The H&S File, as you rightly say Karen, is where PS work can be soul-destroying if you have poor Principal Contractors/contractors. Hence my original posting, I was hoping someone somewhere had discovered a quick fix! For future reference a very successful method I have employed before is to have the Client remove the offending PC/Contractors from all tender lists for all future CDM applicable work until the completed H&S File is produced. It is immediate and affects future potential revenue, and therefore usually gets a rapid response. The response is usually in the form of threats of legal actions etc so needs a strong Client to take the flak! Not many of those around unfortunately. Once again thanks for your interest and suggestions, cheers