Does anyone else work for a group rather than a stand alone organisation and as part of that group structure do you have a separate in house contractor? We have now become a group organisation and as part of this group we have a sperate  in house construction contractor company . Our main company acts as Client / Principle Designer and passes work to our in house contractor who are then seen as the Principle Contractor. My issue ( I think) is that the Safety Advisor is employed by the main company and provides advice, support etc to both the Client / Principle Designer and the Principle Contractor ….This seems a bit of a conflict of interest to me however I cant find anything in CDM that tells me if this is allowed or not. So my question is, does anyone else have this structure and if so how is it set up to stop this conflict if indeed there is one ….Or am I just overthinking all this?!! Thoughts welcome.

The same advisor is writing and signing off pre constuction info for the Principle Designer and then producing a constuction phase plan and RAMs on behalf of the principle contractor...If something were to go wrong and the HSE investigated it just seems a bit of a conflict to me. 

I can't see any conflict of interest in what you describe, in fact for Construction this means both parties are on the same page at all times through having the same advisor.

The only down side is as Kate mentioned an error on one side would not necessarily be picked up by the other especially when it is the same pair of eyes looking.

I think your issue is that two positions within the chain have the same actor eliminating natural checks and balances that would occur if it were two individuals which is a business risk which should be addressed.

I don't immediately see a conflict, presuming that others in the group actually read the paperweork that the safety advisor creates and could/should highlight any issues they might see in them - rather than the Safety advisor creating paperwork that is relied upon to placate the HSE but is not otherwise read or considered by others.   Equally, if the advisor is included an integal and strategic part of the group, they may actually be able to influence their proposals more than if they were an outside contractor / other part of the group. Just beacuse they are integral to the group would not, IMHO make them any better or worse than a standalone or external provider.