4.1 Resourcing, fees and appointment

Proposal for Principal Designer role

It is essential that Designers should be sensibly recompensed for the duties and associated risks they are taking on to adequately perform the Principal Designer role. It is recommended that:

• A Brief for the role of Principal Designer is agreed with the Client. This will be based on the Client Brief (if received). If no written Client Brief is forthcoming, it is recommended that a Client Brief is provided by the Principal Designer recording the briefing discussions with the Client in writing.
• Input required (personnel and required hours) should be assessed once the Brief for the role of Principal Designer has been agreed (and it is recommended that the Principal Designer Brief is agreed before assessing the input required by the Principal Designer). Input required needs to identify who is doing what and when (using the programme agreed within the Client Brief and Principal Designer Brief).
• It is recommended that an Association for Project Safety Form of Appointment for the role of Principal Designer is used.

(http://www.aps.org.uk/publications)

Sample Proposal for Principal Designer Role

TO BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH APS FORM OF APPOINTMENT

Please remember to discuss disclosure of information regarding PII cover with your Insurer

This template can be downloaded from the APS website at www.aps.org.uk/guidance/principal-designers-handbook

Programme change letter

This is example text for a letter from the Principal Designer explaining why a change in the programme is necessary in order to deal with health or safety risk management.

This and other sample letters can be downloaded from the APS website at www.aps.org.uk/guidance/principal-designers-handbook

Late appointment ‘with qualifications’ letter

The following is sample wording for a letter from the Principal Designer to the Client – this example assumes that a Principal Contractor is already appointed. The letter can be adapted according to the circumstances.

This and other sample letters can be downloaded from the APS website at www.aps.org.uk/guidance/principal-designers-handbook

4.2 Pre-Construction Information

Pre-Construction Information is relevant and proportionate Client information (already in the Client’s possession or obtainable) and includes information:

• About the project
• For planning and management of the project
• On health and safety hazards, including design and construction hazards and how they will be addressed
• In any existing Health and Safety File

The following sets out the main areas that must be covered in the Pre-Construction Information, and suggests a way to structure this information.

Description of the project

• Project description
• Key dates
• Project directory – details of other parties
• Extent and location of existing records and plans

Client’s arrangements and requirements

• Timing and sequence of appointments
• Review of designs
• Planning and managing construction
• Communication
• Site security
• Welfare provision
• Environmental restrictions and existing on-site risks
• Significant design and construction hazards
• Health and Safety File

Environmental restrictions and existing on-site risks

Health hazards

• Asbestos
• Storage of hazardous material
• Contaminated ground

Safety hazards

• Existing services
• Information contained in earlier designs, e.g. pre-stressed concrete planks or post-tensioning

Other

• Boundaries
• Adjacent land uses

Significant design and construction hazards

• Suggested work methods, sequences, etc.
• Arrangements for coordinating ongoing designs
• Significant risks identified during the design with appropriate information to allow management of these risks
• Materials requiring particular precautions

4.3 Design Risk Management

Principal Designers need to understand and bring about the process of Design Risk Management for the construction project.

Designers need to take into account the General Principles of Prevention and any Pre-Construction Information to eliminate, so far as is reasonably practicable, foreseeable health and safety risks to those:

• Carrying out or liable to be affected by construction work
• Maintaining or cleaning a structure
• Using a structure designed as a workplace.

If it is not possible to eliminate these risks, the Designer must, so far as is reasonably practicable:

• Take steps to reduce or, if that is not possible, control the risks through the subsequent design process
• Provide information about those risks to the Principal Designer
• Ensure appropriate information is included in the Health and Safety File.

The Principal Designer must manage the above process (and ensure it happens) for each and everyone of the Designers involved in the project.

This is best accomplished by combining the assessed results from Designers into a Design Risk Register.

Design Risk Register

A Design Risk Register is a live document used to log the risks that have been identified on a project. This makes them easy for the Principal Designer and other duty holders to access them as necessary. Further, it enables the Principal Designer to:

• Manage the process of Design Risk Management by assessing the input from each and all of the Designers (and re-assessing) as the project proceeds
• Identify (with Designers) the need for further Pre-Construction Information from the Client
• Consider the affects of one design solution on other designs (and vice versa)
• Identify necessary information produced with the design for passing to
  • ⦿ other Designers (as part of the Pre Construction Information)
  • ⦿ Principal Contractor/Contractors (as part of the Pre Construction Information)
• Identify necessary information produced with the design for inclusion in the Health and Safety File.

Figure 4.1 Sample design risk register

PRE-CONSTRUCTION PHASE DESIGN RISK REGISTER

General site issues

Substructure

Superstucture

Services

Maintenance and Cleaning Operations

Further information and guidance on Design Risk Management can be found on the APS website at www.aps.org.uk/guidance/principal-designers-handbook

4.4 Health and Safety File

During the Pre-Construction Phase, the Principal Designer is responsible for the preparation of a proportionate Health and Safety File containing health and safety project information likely to be needed during any subsequent project.

The Health and Safety File is a live document that needs to be appropriately reviewed, updated and revised by the Principal Designer during the Pre-Construction Phase, as the project proceeds.

The Principal Contractor must provide the Principal Designer with relevant information for the Health and Safety File as the project proceeds.

If the Principal Designer’s appointment ends before the end of the Construction Phase, the Principal Designer must pass the Health and Safety File to the Principal Contractor. It is generally recommended that the Principal Designer appointment lasts until the end of the Construction Phase to enable:

• Completion of the Health and Safety File by the Principal Designer
• Uninterrupted continuation of the Principal Designer role to cater for Design Risk Management that inevitably occurs during most of the Construction Phase

At the end of the project, the Principal Designer, or where there is no Principal Designer, the Principal Contractor, must pass the Health and Safety File to the Client.

The File must contain information about the current project likely to be needed to ensure health and safety during any subsequent work, such as maintenance, cleaning, refurbishment or demolition.

When preparing the Health and Safety File, information on the following should be considered for inclusion:

• A brief description of the project
• Hazards that have not been eliminated through the design and construction processes, and how they have been addressed
• Key structural principles
• Hazardous materials used
• Information regarding the removal or dismantling of installed plant and equipment
• Health and safety information about equipment provided for cleaning or maintaining the structure
• The nature, location and markings of significant services, including underground cables, gas supply equipment, fire-fighting services, etc
• Information and as-built drawings of the building, its plant and equipment.

Document control sheet

A Health and Safety File should be prepared for every project involving more than one Contractor, and this should be done proportionately depending on the size and type of project. In some very small projects it may be sufficient for a Health and Safety File to comprise only one or two pages. However, for most projects the following general format can be used.

The File should be properly titled with project (job) reference, version number and issue date.

The File will be developed at various stages in the life of a project, with information on significant residual risks added to the working file as design and construction work progresses. It is possible that the File could be issued in an incomplete form for others to complete – for example, if the Principal Designer duty holder changes or terminates and the duty is handed to the Principal Contractor.

It is important to provide information on the various duty holders in the File. This will be important for future construction projects.

Health and Safety File – sample structure

The table on Pages 80 and 81 shows the structure of a Health and Safety File prepared to accord with CDM 2015. It may also include an introduction, and various appendices as necessary.

The table also shows the typical sections within the Health and Safety File that could contain useful information to impart to those who will undertake future construction work, including cleaning, maintenance, alterations, refurbishment and demolition, to be carried out safely. Descriptions can be omitted if there is no useful information to be included.

The Client, under the CDM Regulations 2015 has the duty to:

• Ensure that the Health and Safety File is kept available for anyone who needs it to comply with relevant legal requirements
• Pass the Health and Safety File to whoever takes over the structure and takes on the Client duties if the Client decides to dispose of their interest in it
• Ensure that the Health and Safety File is updated with health and safety information following any future work, maintenance or refurbishment that falls within the remit of CDM 2015 involving more than one contractor.

Information and as-built drawings

As-built drawings for the works should be listed in the File. It is not necessary for the drawing to be incorporated but they can be if appropriate, particularly when the information is provided digitally.

Designers should note that the Regulations require ‘as-built’ drawings, not the last construction issue, and this means that the Designers and Principal Designer will have to discuss and confirm any deviations from the construction drawings with the Principal Contractor, perhaps recorded only in written Variation Instructions or instructions issued directly to the site.

Key headings for Health and Safety File

Other information

It is often appropriate to provide information in the Health and Safety File relating to specific hazards and risks, particularly where the information has been provided by specialists, not part of the design or construction teams, and these can be included as Appendices:

• Appendix A – as-built drawings
• Appendix B – asbestos survey (complete document)
• Appendix C – other survey information

Other sample formats for the Health and Safety File can be downloaded from the APS website at www.aps.org.uk/guidance/principal-designers-handbook