Posted By Philip McAleenan Steven, You do not have any cause for concern, as there is no conflict between the CDM Regs and the MHSW Regs. Reg. 7, MHSW Regs imposes a duty on the employer to “appoint one or more competent persons to assist him in undertaking the measures he needs to take to comply with the requirements and prohibitions imposed upon him by or under the relevant statutory provisions”. Note two points here; that more than one competent person may be appointed, and in fact Reg 7(3) states “The employer shall ensure that the number of persons appointed under paragraph (1)… are adequate having regard to the size of his undertaking, the risks to which his employees are exposed and the distribution of those risks throughout the undertaking”. The second point to note is that the regulations do not specify that such an appointee be a competent “health and safety advisor”, but rather a competent person to assist in all his undertakings. Thus if the undertaking requires it, then a competent person will be an engineer, project manager, chemist, machine operator, driver, CDM coordinator etc. each of who is competent in that role, including competent in the health and safety aspects of that role. In effect nothing about your relationship with your employer has changed. Everyone currently employed is and remains a competent person assisting in undertaking the measures needed to comply with the requirements and prohibitions etc… Any future CDM coordinator appointed the employer must make arrangements for ensuring adequate co-operation between all parties. Regards, Philip