Even small businesses have a duty of care to keep their employees and the public safe on site as well as legal requirements to undertake certain paperwork.
For example:
- It is a legal requirement for every company to produce a Company Health & Safety Policy if you have 5 or more employees.
- It is a legal requirement if you have 5 or more people on site at one time that for you to undertake and record a Risk Assessment for the job.
- It is a legal requirement to notify the HSE of your project via the HSE website if it lasts longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point in the project; or exceed 500 person days. If it is a domestic client project this duty will be carried out by other duty holders.
- The previous exemption for domestic clients no longer exists and they are now within the scope of CDM 2015 and consequently have duties. However these duties will be undertaken by either the Contractor, Principal Contractor or Principal Designer.
- It is a legal requirement under CDM 2015 regulations to have an active Construction Phase Health & Safety Plan and that the customer should not allow your project to start without one. A Construction Phase Health & Safety Plan is now a legal requirement for ALL projects. (Although it’s content should be proportionate to the complexity of the project and HSE have suggested a ‘plan for small projects’ see CIS 80)
- It is a legal requirement under CDM 2015 regulations for every project to have Pre-Construction Information document prepared for the project. The client has the main duty for providing Pre-construction Information however as domestic client duties are to be undertaken by either the Contractor, Principal Contractor or Principal Designer, the Principal Contractor must ensure that the client had the Pre-Construction Information prepared, and if it is not, ensure the Client has it done.
- It is a legal requirement under CDM 2015 regulations for companies of all sizes to ensure the competency of the tradesmen you hire – use our Contractor Questionnaire for this.
- It is a legal requirement to record accidents and incidents on site on an Accident & Incident Record.
