Introduction to Health and Safety at Work

17.8.4
General Duties of Clients, CDM 
Coordinators, Principal Contractors and 
Contractors – Part 2
The Regulations require that appointees are competent 
and state that:
No person on whom these Regulations place a duty 
shall:
(
a) appoint or engage a CDM co-ordinator, designer, 
principal contractor or contractor unless he has 
taken reasonable steps to ensure that the person to 
be appointed or engaged is competent
(
b) accept such an appointment or engagement unless 
he is competent
c) arrange for or instruct a worker to carry out or man-
age design or construction work unless the worker is:
 
 (i) competent, or
 
(ii) under the supervision of a competent person.
The AcOP goes into considerable detail about the 
assessment of organizational and individual competence. 
In both cases it lays down a two-stage approach.
➤
STAGE 1 – assessing a company’s organization and 
arrangements for health and safety and an individ-
uals task knowledge to assess whether they appre-
ciate the risks
➤
Stage 2 – assessing the company’s and individual’s 
experience and track record to see if they are cap-
able of doing the work involved.
To be competent, an organization or individual must have:
➤
suffi cient knowledge of the specifi c tasks to be 
undertaken and the risks which the work will entail
➤
suffi cient experience and ability to carry out their 
duties in relation to the project; to recognize their limi-
tations and take appropriate action in order to pre-
vent harm to those carrying out construction work, or 
those affected by the work.
The Regulations require all duty holders to co-operate 
and co-ordinate their work with one another to enable 
people to carry out their duties effectively.
Duties are placed on a number of people which is 
summarized in Table 17.3:
All projects require:
➤
non-domestic clients to check the competence of all 
their appointees; ensure there are suitable manage-
ment arrangements for the project; allow suffi cient 
time and resources for all stages; provide pre-
construction information to designers and contractors
➤
designers to eliminate hazards and reduce risks dur-
ing design; and provide information about remaining 
risks
➤
contractors to plan, manage and monitor their own 
work and that of workers; check the competence 
of all their appointees and workers; train their own 
employees; provide information to their work-
ers; comply with the requirements for health and 
safety on site detailed in Part 4 of the Regulations 
and other regulations such as the Work at Height 
Regulations; and ensure there are adequate welfare 
facilities for their workers
➤
everyone to assure their own competence; co-oper-
ate with others and coordinate work so as to ensure 
the health and safety of construction workers and 
others who may be affected by the work; report 
obvious risks; take account of the general principles 

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