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Where works are carried out for you, it may be necessary to meet certain legal duties under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM).
What are CDM regulations?
CDM regulations are intended to protect the health and safety of those carrying out the work and others who may be affected by it (for example, members of the public).
Who is a ‘client’?
Under the regulations, a client is defined as any individual or organisation for whom a construction project is carried out. Professionals might support the client with:
- Planning
- Design
- Management
Or other work associated with the project until the work is complete.
Construction work
The meaning of construction work is very comprehensive and can include the alteration, renovation, repair, upkeep, redecoration, or other maintenance of a structure (including a church).
Many clients are not experts in carrying out construction work, and you are not expected to actively manage or supervise the work yourself. However, the decisions you make can influence how work is carried out. This, in turn, can affect the health, safety, or welfare of those involved. For example, you decide which designer and contractor will carry out the work and how much money, time, and resources are available to complete it.
What you need to do as a ‘client’ where CDM applies?
- If there will be more than one contractor working on the project at any time, appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor. Make these appointments in writing and well in advance of the work starting.
- Take reasonable steps to ensure that any designer or contractor appointed has the skills, knowledge, experience, and capability to fulfil their duties.
- Make sure that adequate arrangements are in place, including the allocation of sufficient time and other resources. If you're managing and organising any health and safety precautions, include the provision of any necessary welfare facilities. These arrangements should be maintained and reviewed throughout the project.
- Provide appropriate information to the designer and contractor, including what is being built, the site, and existing structures and any hazards (for example, asbestos, overhead cables, and buried services).
- Notify the Health and Safety Executive if work will last longer than 30 days with more than 20 workers working at once, or involves more than 500 person days of work. You can ask someone else to do this for you, but make sure you check that they have.
- Before construction work starts, ensure an adequate construction phase plan is drawn up by the principal contractor (or contractor if there is only one). This plan should explain how health and safety risks will be managed during the work.
- Take reasonable steps to ensure that the principal designer and the principal contractor carry out their duties.
- Ensure a health and safety file is prepared by the principal designer. This needs to meet certain requirements and should be handed to you on completion of the work. It should contain relevant information which will help you manage any health and safety risks during future construction work. You should keep the file, make it available to anyone who needs to alter or maintain the building and update it if circumstances change.
Frequently asked questions
Every year, there are numerous fires on construction sites and in buildings undergoing refurbishment, many caused by 'hot works' such as welding, grinding, the use of open flames, or the application of heat.
When hot works are present, certain procedures must be followed, and we’ll need your contractor to complete a hot works permit.
We have specific requirements before we can provide cover, and normally, theft of external metal is not covered while scaffolding is erected.
However, in some circumstances, we may be able to provide cover subject to certain security conditions.
Ask your architect to complete our scaffolding checklist. Our theft of metal page has information on how to reduce the risk of metal theft at your church.
We do not consider a church undergoing building works as being unoccupied.
However, if there is a period of unoccupancy prior to commencement or following completion of the contract works, contact us on 0345 777 3322 as soon as possible, as it may be necessary for us to amend your cover.
If the works are scheduled to overrun the original anticipated completion date, contact us in case we need to extend your cover on 0345 777 3322.
Depending on the revised anticipated completion date, an additional premium may be required.
Where the contract works include capital additions, for example, an extension, contact us to review your building's sum insured.
In the case of church halls, your architect may be able to advise an appropriate adjustment to the building's sum insured.