CITB Managers CDM Regulations 2015 — Duty Holders and Responsibilities 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under CDM 2015, which duty holder has overall responsibility for ensuring the project is set up to manage health and safety risks?
- The principal designer
- The principal contractor
- The client (Correct answer)
- The project architect
Correct answer: The client
The client sits at the top of the CDM duty-holder hierarchy and has overall responsibility for ensuring the project is organised so health and safety is managed throughout. All other duty-holder appointments flow from the client's decisions.
Question 2: A principal contractor must ensure a Construction Phase Plan is in place before construction begins. What must the plan include?
- Only the names of all workers on site
- The health and safety arrangements, site rules, and specific measures for managing identified risks during construction (Correct answer)
- The project budget and programme
- The names of all contractors and their insurance details
Correct answer: The health and safety arrangements, site rules, and specific measures for managing identified risks during construction
The Construction Phase Plan (CPP) must set out the health and safety arrangements for managing and monitoring the construction phase, site rules, and details of how risks identified in the pre-construction phase will be managed.
Question 3: Under CDM 2015, a principal designer must be appointed when:
- The project involves more than one contractor (Correct answer)
- The project has a notifiable element
- The client specifically requests one
- Any time an architect is involved
Correct answer: The project involves more than one contractor
A principal designer must be appointed by the client on any project involving, or likely to involve, more than one contractor. There is no minimum project size or notifiable threshold — it applies to all multi-contractor projects.
Question 4: The Health and Safety File must be maintained during the project and handed to the client at practical completion. Who has primary responsibility for compiling it?
- The principal contractor
- The client
- The principal designer (Correct answer)
- The CDM coordinator (no longer exists under CDM 2015)
Correct answer: The principal designer
Under CDM 2015, the principal designer is responsible for preparing and reviewing the Health and Safety File throughout the pre-construction phase. The principal contractor contributes information during construction. The file is handed to the client at project end.
Question 5: Which of the following is a client duty under CDM 2015?
- Preparing the Construction Phase Plan
- Making suitable arrangements for managing the project and ensuring they are maintained throughout (Correct answer)
- Designing out risks during the pre-construction phase
- Supervising all contractors on site daily
Correct answer: Making suitable arrangements for managing the project and ensuring they are maintained throughout
Regulation 4 of CDM 2015 requires clients to make and maintain suitable arrangements for managing the project to ensure construction work is carried out so far as reasonably practicable without risks to health and safety.
Question 6: A contractor working under CDM 2015 must not start work on site until:
- They have received payment for the first stage
- A construction phase plan is in place (for multi-contractor projects) (Correct answer)
- Their insurance has been verified by the HSE
- They have submitted a RIDDOR notification
Correct answer: A construction phase plan is in place (for multi-contractor projects)
For projects involving more than one contractor, no contractor may start work on the construction phase until the principal contractor has drawn up the Construction Phase Plan. This is a hard legal pre-condition for starting work.
CITB Managers CDM Regulations 2015 — Duty Holders and Responsibilities 1
Under CDM 2015, which duty holder has overall responsibility for ensuring the project is set up to manage health and safety risks?