CDM is short for the “The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015”

Does CDM apply to me as a house holder?  

YES

Is this a problem?

 NO

To comply with the law all you need to do is adopt the right approach to your project. By reading this you already have!

What can do I do next / how do I find out more?

Click here to go to the HSE web page which I hope you’ll find useful. It explains what you as the home owner needs to do.

Comment

Historically too many people were getting killed or injured in the construction industry which was and is unacceptable. The Government concentrated on the big Contractors first because they employed the most people, tended to carry out more technically difficult and risky jobs and thus broadly speaking were responsible for the most casualties. Once the big firms got their house in order the Government concentrated on medium sized companies.

This left the self employed and small builders employing a couple of people and a sub contractor or two. The small builders were still killing and injuring too many people so to address this amongst other matters the law was changed in 2015.

In the short term doing things safely and not cutting corners often costs a little more money. Safety is all encompassing; from the obvious such as safe scaffolding, to the less obvious such as when a builder substitutes materials that have a particular property that make the design unsafe. The CDM 2015 regulations apply to designers such as myself and many other professionals, not just builders.

Would you rather pay a little more to get your job not only completed safely but also to remain safe?