June 25, 2003—Results of the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE) designer initiative held during March 2003 in Scotland and the North of England revealed that many designers are unaware of their duties under Regulation 13 of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 1994 (CDM).
In about one third of cases the designers demonstrated little or no understanding of their responsibilities. A significant number had failed to consider the practical detail of how the structure they had designed could be safely constructed, maintained, and cleaned.
The designer initiative involved HSE’s construction inspectors in Scotland and the North of England meeting designers and planning supervisors on site in a bid to reduce the number of accidents in the construction industry involving falls from height. Falls from height continue to be the most significant cause of fatal accidents on construction sites in the UK and designers have legal duties to avoid foreseeable risks to workers during construction, cleaning, and maintenance of the finished structure. Where risks remain, designers are required to provide information that will allow these risks to be properly controlled by others.
HSE inspectors looked in detail at the design input at 123 major projects, covering a wide range of different types of work, representing a value of nearly 1bn. The inspectors held pre-arranged site meetings with the lead designers and planning supervisors in order to assess how the designer had controlled risk in relation to work at height. The aim of the initiative was for inspectors to identify good and bad practice and raise awareness of designer duties rather than to focus on taking enforcement action.
Only one third of the designers seen during the initiative were considered by inspectors to have sufficient knowledge of CDM to allow them to adequately fulfill their duties as a designer. A mere 8% of the designers seen had received any training on CDM, and for many, this initiative was the first occasion when they had been asked to justify their design decisions in the context of Regulation 13 of CDM.
For more information on the results found during the designer initiative, see the report posted on the HSE Web site.
