Posted By sylvia
Extract from HSE / industry FAQ help pages on CDM - due to HSE web changes can't easily find it now! Sorry it's a bit long and classically HSE-worded. Your client may be asking for a "design risk assessment" because that is what the 1994 CDM regs talked about, and they haven't changed.
Q: "I’m a bit confused about whether I should be using design risk assessments, design risk reviews, or some other means of documenting my risk procedures. Can you help me?"
A: Your aim is to eliminate hazards from the design (so far as is reasonably practicable), and reduce risks from any remaining hazards – giving priority to collective protective measures before individual protective measures.
The consideration of hazard and risk is integrated within the design process, so there is no need to carry out a separate “design risk assessment”.
A design review may also be useful as a means of checking that the principle aim of eliminating hazards or reducing risks is achieved.
A design practice or design team may choose to develop their own arrangements to make sure that designers are aware of their responsibility to eliminate hazards and reduce risks. The nature of these arrangements will depend on the size of the design practice/team, and the type of work undertaken.
Q: "I thought the Management of Health and Safety At Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) required risk assessments, so why don’t I have to do specific design risk assessments?"
A: Reg 3(1) of MHSWR does require employers and the self-employed to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of risks to which their own employees are exposed at work, and also the risks arising out of, or in connection with, their work activity (e.g. designs) to which others may be exposed.
The purpose of the risk assessment is to identify measures needed to comply with relevant health and safety law.
However, the risk assessment of a design should be integral to, and evolve with, the design work itself. Every design is different, and every design will require a degree of calculation, assessment, review, and the proper exercise of judgement.
If a designer is complying with reg 11 of the new CDM 2007 Regulations, then as the design is worked through to completion any hazards will be eliminated and residual risks (to those who may be affected by them) reduced, so far as is reasonably practicable.
This is, in effect, the application of risk assessment to the design.
There is no legal requirement for a risk assessment to be in writing or recorded, however, reg 3(6)(a) of MHSWR does require the significant findings of the assessment to be recorded where an employer employs five or more people.
In terms of design, the significant findings of the assessment will be the finished design, together with all relevant drawings, and any accompanying notes.
Reg 3(3) of MHSWR requires any assessment to be reviewed if no longer valid, or if there have been significant changes. Most design practices already do this, by a systematic process of design review throughout the development of the design. Designers may choose to record the reasons why a design was modified or revised so that any subsequent designers are aware of what was decided.
Para 113 of the CDM 2007 ACOP states that “compliance with Reg 11 of CDM 2007 will usually be sufficient for designers to achieve compliance with Regs 3(1), (2), and (6) of MHSWR as they relate to the design of the structure”.
Q: "How and what information do I have to pass on?"
A: You should inform others about project specific significant residual risks. This should focus on risks that may not be obvious to those who use the design.
One good way of communicating this information is using notes on drawings, if you are not sure what information should be passed on talk to the CDM co-ordinator or contractor about what they need to know.