The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM 2015) set out what people involved in construction work must do to plan, manage and coordinate health and safety from the start of a project to completion.
When do CDM 2015 regulations apply? The answer is not always clear. This article explains when CDM 2015 applies to a project, what counts as construction work and when a construction project must be notified to HSE.
Firstly, we will look at the types of work covered by CDM 2015.
There are two steps to determine whether or not an activity falls within the definition of construction work and, therefore, if CDM 2015 applies.
Step 1: The project must fall within one or more of the following three main categories of work to be within the scope of CDM:
If the activity falls within any of these three categories, then CDM construction regulations apply to the project.
Step 2: If the project falls into one of the three main categories, the second stage is to decide if the task falls within a range of specific activities as defined by the CDM Regulations 2015.
Our CDM Training course gives a thorough understanding of Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM Regulations) 2015, how a CDM project works and the risk assessment process to carry out a construction project.
Activities where CDM 2015 applies include site preparation for an intended structure, such as:
CDM 2015 covers typical building construction tasks such as:
CDM 2015 also covers typical maintenance tasks such as:
CDM 2015 applies to the assembly of prefabricated elements, including:
CDM 2015 covers the installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of a plant involving the following tasks:
Work at height on structures is covered, including:
CDM 2015 covers underground and earthworks, such as:
Water works are included, such as:
Finally, the regulations cover specific workplaces and locations, including work on:
We will now look in more detail at the process of deciding if CDM applies to a project or not.
As we shall see, whilst CDM provides a fairly clear definition of what’s meant by construction work, there are still grey areas where it can be hard to decide if the work is covered by the regulations or not.
One of these grey areas is maintenance and repair work. According to the HSE:
‘Where a maintenance activity involves construction processes, requires construction skills and uses construction materials, then it is most likely to fall within the term ‘construction work’.
In other words, if it clearly looks like a construction job, then it’s likely to be covered by the CDM Regulations 2015.
HSE’s current CDM guidance also confirms that CDM 2015 does not apply to all maintenance work.
To help distinguish whether CDM 2015 applies from whether a project must be notified to HSE, the examples below show how the regulations apply in practice.
Note: Notification is not the same as application. CDM 2015 can apply to a construction project even if it is not notifiable. A project is notifiable to HSE only if the construction work is expected to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working at the same time at any point, or exceed 500 person-days.
A boiler repair involving a mechanic who is called out to perform servicing on a boiler is not likely to be a CDM job. Why? Because it only involves the adjustment and repair of a fixed plant. These activities, as the HSE has stated, are not considered to be covered by CDM.
Let’s assume that the same contractor is asked to install a new heating system. The job involves the same boiler, but obviously involves more extensive work such as drilling into the fabric of the building and making other adjustments to the structure.
This is likely to be a CDM job. Why? Because it involves construction type tasks. Affecting the fabric of the structure of a building will involve completing tasks that are clearly identified by the CDM regulations.
Let’s say a contractor is hired to clear a site of a number of trees as part of a new construction project. In this scenario, such work would be seen as part of the broader construction project, therefore it would be covered by CDM.
What this example demonstrates is that if the task is clearly part of a construction project, then it will be designated as a CDM job, even if it does not immediately look like construction work.
Now, let us assume that the same contractor is hired to undertake tree cutting work which is not part of any other building or civil engineering work. It’s purely tree work, perhaps as part of a routine grounds maintenance contract.
Although the task may look similar, CDM is unlikely to apply if the tree work is standalone grounds maintenance and is not part of a wider building, civil engineering or engineering construction project.
To further clarify the point about maintenance work, let’s look at some common facilities management tasks.
The HSE has stated that the following activities would not generally fall under CDM:
To be exempt from the CDM Regulations 2015, these tasks must not be part of other construction work.
Other examples of work that does not generally fall under the CDM construction regulations include:
When do CDM regulations apply? As we have seen in the cases discussed, it is not always straightforward.
Where the position is unclear, a business owner may seek competent advice on both whether the work is construction work under CDM 2015 and, separately, whether it meets HSE’s notification thresholds.
However, you can give yourself and your team a thorough grounding in the principles of the CDM Regulations 2015 by participating in an online course from Human Focus. Human Focus provides both a general CDM Training Course and CDM Duty Holder Training.
