Hello all, 

I would like to get your opinion on what inforamtion is required from the "Principal designer role" (modular construction sites)

Is a pre construction information pack still required? Do Design risk asessements need to be completed. My designer insits after completing the 2 day CDM princapal designer training, that a design risk assessment is not required becasue the "risks" are already designed out. The PD trainers take was that a simple folder with surveys was all that was required. 

There is no statutory duty for a designer of construction work to produce a separate design risk assessment document.

Regulation 9 of CDM requires that designers avoid foreseeable risks to the health and safety of people affected by the design.  Designers must consider and eliminate significant hazards (as far as is reasonably practicable) and reduce the risk associated with hazards where elimination is not possible.  Clearly, this requires that some effort be put into identifying potential risks, assessing whether they are significant and then considering whether they can be eliminated or reduced, but this does not require the production of a specific type or format of document – it does not require a designer risk assessment document (DRA).

It certainly does not require designers prick a number from 1 to 5 and then multiply it by another number from 1 to 5, and then do it all over again with some imagined 'controls'.

It is sometimes said that Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 (MHSWR) is relevant because it requires a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks arising out of work activity (e.g. designs).  Although there is no legal requirement for the risk assessment itself to be in writing, regulation 3(6)(a) of MHSWR does require the significant findings of the assessment to be recorded where an employer employs five or more people.  However, in terms of design, the significant findings of the assessment process will be the finished design, together with all relevant drawings and any accompanying notes.  That is, broadly as your designer argues - the design deliverables are the outcome of the process of design within which risks were assessed.

Paragraph 113 of the CDM ACOP to the previous revision of the regulations explicitly stated “compliance with regulation 11 of CDM 2007 will usually be sufficient for designers to achieve compliance with regulations 3(1), (2), and (6) of MHSWR as they relate to the design of the structure”.

There is a statutory duty (CDM regulations 9(3)(b) and 9(4)) that designers communicate information about significant risks to other parties, including other designers and the contractors involved.  The preferred means of doing so is generally by means of notes on drawings, not in a separate DRA document (site staff read drawings, they don't in general go looking for a DRA).

However, although designers are not legally required under CDM2015 to keep records of the process through which they achieve a safe design, it would be a foolish designer that did not keep some records of the process, if nothing else to show the judge...

Edited by user 08 March 2023 08:59:24(UTC)  | Reason: spilling