A new survey on the recent changes to the Construction Design and Management regulation has shown mixed opinions…
A survey carried out by Philip Poynter Construction Safety has revealed a polarised opinion on new health and safety regulation Construction Design and Management (CDM) 2015. The survey, which received more than 250 completed responses between 9 and 29 November, asked three questions. These comprised of how CDM 2015 compares to CDM 2007; how the principal designer (PD) compares to the CDM coordinator; and how the PD role is working.
The respondents were almost equally divided in their assessment of CDM 2015 verses CDM 2007. Around 39 per cent thought CDM 2015 was an improvement on the previous regulation, while 38 per cent said it was worse. Around 22 per cent said there was no change.
On the question of PD verses CDM coordinator 42 per cent said the former was worse than the latter. However, 37 per cent reported the PD role is an improvement. No changes was reported by 22 per cent.
Additionally, around 55 per cent thought the role of PD was inadequate, while only 36 per cent said the role was working well. A total of 11 per cent said they were unsure.
The survey also found a number of organisations were reluctant to accept PD appointments, according to 62 per cent of respondents. A total of 57 per cent said there was significant confusion over what the role of the PD must entail to ensure compliance with regulations. However, only 34 per cent said they thought Health and Safety Executive guidance on the PD function was inadequate.
One of the most significant findings of the survey was that poor compliance by principal designers was reported by 41 per cent of respondents, while only 56 per cent reported good compliance.
On the client side, 41 per cent reported they had failed to appoint a PD, 46 per cent said they had appointed an inappropriate organisation, while 46 per cent said they had failed to properly resource the PD function.
Fees were reportedly higher for PDs than for CDM coordinators said 27 per cent of respondents.
The survey, while interesting, comes very early in the switch from CDM 2007 to CDM 2015. Time will tell whether the new regulations are deemed a success or failure by the sector. Philip Poynter Construction Safety said it intends to repeat the survey again in April to see what has changed.
