CDM Consultant London

Construction Duties Start Before Site Work

CDM consultancy helps commercial clients understand the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and organise their project arrangements. Office fit-outs, alterations and maintenance projects can involve construction work even when the business describes them as routine property activity. The project’s value alone does not determine whether CDM applies.

We scope support around your role, the project team and the work proposed. For an occupied London building, the interface between the contractor, occupier and managing agent needs particular attention. Access routes, retained services, deliveries and disruption to neighbouring workplaces should be considered before work packages are released.

The Commercial Client’s Responsibilities

Commercial clients must make suitable arrangements for managing a project, including allocating enough time and resources. They need to provide relevant pre-construction information and make the required appointments. They must also take reasonable steps to check that the principal designer and principal contractor carry out their duties where those roles apply.

Where more than one contractor is involved, or is reasonably foreseeable, the client must appoint a principal designer and principal contractor in writing. Consultancy advice is not automatically a principal designer appointment. We agree the advisory scope explicitly, and any statutory role requires a separate assessment of competence, capability and responsibilities.

Clarifying The Principal Designer Role

The principal designer plans, manages, monitors and coordinates health and safety during the pre-construction phase of a project involving more than one contractor. This role concerns design risk management, not simply assembling a folder. Designers need useful information about existing conditions and must consider foreseeable risks associated with their design decisions.

The CDM principal designer role is distinct from the principal designer role under the Building Regulations. A project may need both roles addressed, but the appointment requirements and responsibilities are different. Your professional team should confirm who holds each relevant role and what information must pass between them.

How We Structure The Support

We start with the project description, client organisation, procurement approach and proposed programme. Existing drawings, building information, previous surveys and operational constraints help identify gaps in pre-construction information. The client and project team then agree who will obtain missing information and how it will reach designers and contractors.

The next stage is a review of responsibilities and coordination arrangements. We help define meeting inputs, design risk questions and the information needed before the construction phase starts. A construction phase plan is required before construction begins, and welfare arrangements need to be addressed rather than left as an assumption.

Useful Information At Handover

A health and safety file is required for projects involving more than one contractor. The file should contain relevant information for future construction work, rather than every document produced during delivery. The principal designer prepares it, with information provided by others and arrangements for transfer where appointments change.

For a facilities team, accessible information about residual risks, structural features and maintenance access can be more useful than an unstructured archive. Agree the handover format early, including how information is reviewed and retained. Wider operational arrangements can be reviewed through a health and safety audit once the premises return to use.

What Determines The Consultancy Cost

CDM support cost depends on the appointment, project complexity, design development, programme length and the condition of existing information. An occupied refurbishment with phased handovers requires different coordination from a contained project in a vacant commercial unit. Site attendance, meeting frequency and document reviews should be stated in the proposal.

Send a short project description, location, anticipated start date and current design stage when requesting support. Include the known dutyholders and whether contractors have already been selected. For operational hazards continuing alongside construction, our workplace risk assessments help distinguish the occupier’s controls from project arrangements.

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