Health & Safety Xpert update – important improvements for you and your clients

Our Health & Safety Xpert software is undergoing valuable updates that include, amongst others, a new document to make sure your clients are aware of their own duties when it comes to health and safety.

Version 5 of Health & Safety Xpert is coming very soon and includes updates such as:

• A number of updated COSHH assessments 
• Over 60 updates to current risk assessments
• Updates to management documents including site induction, inspection checklist, site audit and set up inspection sheets
• Nine new risk assessments:
  

• Refurbishment
• Falsework (Temporary works)
• Scaffold cranes
• Piling operations
• Plant maintenance
• Woodworking machines
• Stone working machines
• Migrant workers
• Hop-up platforms

• New report of inspection – scaffold/excavation register
• Amended Company Health and Safety Policy – to include a migrant workers’ section and a drugs and alcohol section
• New Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (CDM) document for Customer Duties.

Do your clients know their CDM responsibilities? 

When choosing a builder or developer, many clients may choose the company that produces the cheapest quote, but cutting corners to save on budget could put workers and the public at risk.

Construction jobs account for around 5% of all employees in Britain but 27% of UK work related fatalities! Read the Health & Safety Executive’s (HSE) full construction statistics here.  The HSE continue to strive to improve conditions in the construction industry. Their Plan of Work for 2014/15  has just been published. They will continue to focus their efforts on small sites and plan to step up their vigilance on the causes of ill health and disease in the workplace as well as general welfare, too.

But it’s not just on site influences they’ll be checking this time around. The guidelines also outline their plans to examine ‘beyond the site gate’ in order to assess how other duty holders influence health and safety standards on site. That means everyone involved in a building project at any stage of its development, has a part to play in health and safety – including your clients!

This is why the new Customer Duties document in version 5 of Health & Safety Xpert is an important addition to this upcoming update. It is a document that you can give to your clients so they are aware of their responsibilities under CDM regulations.

The new form will reinforce and ensure proper safety on site and will help to improve client relationships too – explaining the legal obligations of both builder and client, at tender stage means that all expenditure regarding the provision of welfare facilities is discussed, understood and agreed upon.

Doing it the right way may cost more than making dangerous shortcuts, but this Customer Duties document will help to provide verification that your charges are reasonable and that you are a responsible and methodical builder.

What responsibilities must my clients adhere to?

Clients have responsibilities on all major building projects, refurbishments and repairs and minor building projects and their duties apply from project conception to its completion. Making them aware of these responsibilities is important and will help to eliminate risk.

On all building and construction projects, the client will need to adhere to Parts 1, 2, 4 and 5 of the CDM 2007 regulations. These include:

• Checking the competence and resources of all appointees 
• Ensuring there are suitable management arrangements for the project welfare facilities
• Allowing sufficient time and resources for all stages of the project
• Providing pre-construction information to designers and contractors.

Notifiable projects 

Some building projects are classed as notifiable under CDM 2007 and these clients will have additional client duties (under Part 3 of CDM 2007):

• Appointing a CDM co-ordinator
• Appointing a principal contractor
• Making sure that construction work doesn’t begin unless a construction phase plan is in place and there are adequate welfare facilities on site 
• Providing information for the health and safety file to the CDM co-ordinator
• Retaining and provide access to this health and safety file.

What defines a client for CDM purposes?  

Clients could include local authorities, designers, architects or other businesses you carry out work for. They also include principal contractors and CDM co-ordinators (for notifiable projects). All of these people have a responsibility (alongside you, of course) to ensure every stage of the work is carried out safely.

Domestic clients are classed as exempt from these client duties under CDM regulations, but could attract responsibility under Part 4. Duties under this section apply regardless of employment status and will therefore kick in if your domestic clients have significant control over the way in which the work is carried out.

For example, if a domestic client insists on builders using unsafe site access or controls other aspects of how a project is done, that would mean that they were controlling the construction work to some extent. They would then have responsibilities under Part 4, in which case their instructions could be breaking the law.  There’s more information about domestic clients and their responsibilities on the HSE’s website.

Make sure you’re ready for the update! 

Health & Safety Xpert will increase your chances of winning jobs – proving you’re serious about health and safety shows you’re a conscientious and professional building firm.

For more information about Health & Safety Xpert and how it can help you to ease the pressure of health and safety compliance, visit our website for more information or give us a call on 0845 1234 065.

We’ll keep you informed on the progress of the update – version 5 will be available very soon!