HSE Blast Designers' Risk Assessments

The HSE has published a report on its findings of the safety performance of designers, showing continued improvement over the last three years. However, the HSE is concerned that many construction projects are still producing vast quantities of useless paperwork. The findings come after HSE construction inspectors met with designers at 124 building projects across Scotland and Northern England in April this year. The investigations found the following;

- 69 per cent of designers have a good or adequate knowledge of their legal duties under CDM
- 57 per cent of the designers interviewed had received training
- The majority of the design risk assessments seen by the HSE inspectors were generic
- The design risk assessments failed to adequately cover site-specific issues
- The design risk assessments concealed the real areas for concern and added no value to the design process

Copies of HSE (Construction Division) Scotland, North West and Newcastle upon Tyne Offices can be found on the HSE website at: http://www.hse.gov.uk/construction/designers/report05.pdf.

HSE raise the bar for Olympics

Ai Solutions have a good editorial piece in their September newsletter about the implications that the Olympic Games will have on the construction industry.

Continue at Source: Olympic Games / Construction editorial

Revisions To CDM Regulations

The consultation stage of the review of the CDM regulations being orchestrated by the Health & Safety Executive is complete. The HSE's timetable anticipates the enforcement of the regulations from October 2006 with only a 3 month lead in with the guidance. Once ratified, the legislation will take immediate effect. There will be no lead in period; no period of grace; immediate.

Role Changing in CDM

Change is often the most feared part of consultation. The majority want the status quo - we just want to be left alone! If nothing changes, we normally have to do absolutely nothing except carry on as before; i.e. nothing. Business as usual. With the current CDM changes still in consultation, I can continue to do nothing for another year at least!

Calls to very large London based organisations this week reveal little or no concern about managing the current CDM Regulations let alone the proposed revised ones. Where management is taking place, the idea of sharing that information with other sister organisations and fellow contractors in the public sector appears 'out of focus' to say the least.

One of the issues raised is the difficulty in deciding who the Client in many CDM projects actually is. In highways maintenance for instance, there appears to be little clarity in who the Client actually is and even then, the role appears to pass back and forth between at least 2 agencies almost as quickly as you identify them. So when the CDM revisions include even more regulations aimed at the Client, won't there be even more procrastination? If the intention of the regulations is to collar the Client with responsibilities he or she could never have imagined would come their way, the more astute will no doubt organise themselves to decline the offer of being the Client - for the time being anyway until the next storm passes. It is however, worth noting that the role of Client's Agent has been dropped from the proposed legislation. If you are the Client, you have much more to do and there is no way out!

Ai Solutions offer a tool for good communication, between all levels of all departments and between all organisations that want to engage with them. Not just a documentation system; good though it is in that role, ToolKit CS™ is a communication system second to none for managing CDM compliance not only now but using the changed legislation that you have only this month to comment upon!

Discussing CDM Regulations Revisions

The HSE web site is running an interesting discussion forum on its web site. See http://consultations.hse.gov.uk/.

Anyone who is a designer or is otherwise involved in the delivery of projects with a CDM input is sure to find the discussion interesting; You have until the end of July to make your views known.

Collaborative Seminar

The revisions to the CDM regulations are now at the consultative stage and the APS (and others) are running workshops to help facilitate feedback to the HSE. However, a key issue for large organisations is the need to gain an appropriate level of visibility for the management of regulations, throughout the organisation.

With this in mind, Ai Solutions have approached a number of organisations including the HSE to find out what interest there is for holding a Collaborative Seminar, using the CDM revisions as a base, to explore how regulations are managed in organisations. If you are interested in taking part in this debate, then you should contact Ai Solutions by 12 May 2005.

ToolKit CS™ Service Pack 6

Ai Solutions have just released Service Pack 6 of ToolKit CS.

Service Pack 6 includes the following updates;
- New Action menu to duplicate right-click menu
- CDM Knowledge Base updates, including the new Working at Height Regulations
- CDM Drawings & Documents Register updates

For more information, see their April newsletter.