British Legal Framework For Construction Health and Safety

British Legal Frame ply For body structure Health and SafetyIn 1974 in great Britain, the parliament take the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 (HSWA) which became the major piece of command at croak for wellness and arctic matters in the country. This Act was adopted for any industries including reflection. Its aims were to provide the main principles and duties to employers, employees and all the participant of the run stand forivity in general (St hindquarters Holt, 2005). Then, the European coalescence (EU) imposed new directives to its members on health and rubber eraser issues. The legal framework in salient Britain changed and new acts and directive had been adopted by the parliament background signal up a hierarchy of component in the legal system (Howarth Watson, 2009)European Union regulations and directives all the members of EU are subject to European legislationUK statutory lawfulness acts of parliament HSWA 1974 is the principal act in the UKStat utory instrument regulations to develop and detail specific duties and requirement concerning health and resort law in the UKApproved Codes of Practice practical guidance for compliance with health and recourse regulationsSince 1974, the HSWA had been supported and supplemented by several statutory instruments and regulations (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004). Following the framework directives of the EU aiming to improve health and rubber eraser for workers at work, the Management of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992 and then 1999 (MHSW) came to provide additional elements to the HSWA. Other daughter regulations had been adopted to implement this act on specific verbal expression related areas (Fewings, 2005).Some examples of these new regulations (St canful Holt, 2005 Fewings, 2005)MHSW Management of the Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1992/1999CHSW Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996/2000PUWER Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regul ations 1998LOLER Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998CSHHR Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations 1999MHOR Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992CDM Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994/2007The HSWA first objectives were to impose duties on the stakeholders involved in the work activity related to the safeguarding of health and safety standards. The key duties were places on employers toward employees, on employers towards people new(prenominal) than employees, on people in control of premises, on designer, manufacturers, suppliers and plant installer for the safety of their products, on every employees and more generally on everybody concerned by work activity (Howarth Watson, 2009).The responsibility for enforcing these act and regulations is taken by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) which is appointed by the government to develop policies on its behalf. Its executive arm, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) i s in charge of the enforcement. It controls and advise the companies in the applications of the regulations (St John Holt, 2005). The HSC and HSE are also trusty of recording and monitoring construction industry health and safety statistics in Great Britain. Injuries, diseases and dangerous occurrences are then considered with numbers and corrective actions lavatory be made (Howarth Watson, 2009).Construction design and management (CDM)On 6 April 2007 came into force in Great Britain the new Construction Design and Management Regulations 2007 written by the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and approved by the Secretary of State and the Parliament. These regulations update, connect and replace the former Construction Design and Management Regulations 1994 (CDM94) and the Construction (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1996 (CHSW) which both needed to be reviewed and updated accordingly with the recent evolutions of the considerations towards health and safety issues in co nstruction and after consultations of the main stakeholders of the construction industry (HSC, 2007).The CDM2007 Regulations aim to reduce construction accidents and ill health in Great Britain by encouraging the divers(a) stakeholders of the construction industry to improve in planning and managing their projects taking into consideration matters of safety and health early on in the project definition. By offset focusing on these substantive points at the beginning of a project, risks can be identified and managers are able to make good decisions ahead of difficulties (Howarth Watson, 2009). In this new version of the regulations, the HSC focuses on communication and co-ordination between all the parties involved in the construction project and set up several duties for each of the assorted stakeholders. It also highlights that the amount of paperwork and all the bureaucracy caused by the previous version of the regulations should be reduced and the focus put on the planning a nd management. (HSE Web lay)The CDM set up obligations for clients and designers. The main obligation imposed to the client is to appoint the main stakeholders for the planning and the realisation of construction work (St John Holt, 2005). By construction work, the CDM broadly refers to the carrying knocked out(p) of building, civil engineering or engineering construction word (HSC, 2007). The regulations also impose duties to the central determines then appointed which are related to health, safety and occupational safety on construction project and which will be summarised later in this paper. Among the dutyholders which participate to the carrying out of the project are the Client, the Designer, the CDM-Coordinator, the bargainer Contractor and the Contractors (St John Holt, 2005).The ClientThe Client is defined as any person for whom construction work is being carried out, whether done by external labour or in-house (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004). It can be an individual as h ead as a club. By this definition of the investigator of the work, the Client is the one who provides adequate funds to design and stimulate the work in respect of safety and health regulations imposed by the CDM and thus has a certain influence on what happens on site (St John Holt, 2005). The CDMRegulations 2007 submit the Client to several duties (Howarth Watson, 2009) (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004) (HSE, 2006)Appoint a CDM-Coordinator and a Principal ContractorMake sure that these two stakeholders and all the other the client could presently appoint are competent and have the adequate resources to mange health and safety problem associated with the projectEnsure that the construction does not start until suitable eudaemonia facilities have been provided as well as an agreeable health and safety plan entrust the CDM-Coordinator and the Designers with all the relevant selective info approximately health and safety matters related to the projectRetain and make the health and safety file available to anyone who asks for itThe CDM-Coordinator should be appointed as soon as possible so the Client can receive advice from him in order to appoint the other stakeholders (St John Holt, 2005). One of the important duty of the Client is to make sure that all the main figures he (it?) has to appoint are competent and have the adequate resources to deal with health and safety issues. That means the Client has to see that these stakeholders understand well the project, are familiar with construction techniques, are well certain of health and safety matters their risks and consequences but also that they allocate enough money and persons to do the capriole (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004).Maybe what they are not required ? FraserThe CDM-CoordinatorThe CDM-Coordinator is a person or a company appointed as early as possible by the Client in the preparation of the project. He is a key element for the prevention of risks related to health and safety as he is the main co nsultant of the Client and he is the guarantor of coordination and co-operation between the main figures involved in the construction process (HSC, 2007).The duties of the CDM-Coordinator imposed by the Regulations 2007 are (HSC, 2007) (Semple Fraser, 2007) (Howarth Watson, 2009)Advise the Client and other stakeholders on appointments competence and resource availabilityNotify HSE about the projectCoordinate planning and design work on health and safety matters foster with the Principal Contractor and facilitate good communication between the stakeholders involved in the projectCollect pre-construction information and prepare a pre-tender health and safety planPrepare and update the health and safety fileSupervise designers and ensure the design is prepared adequatelyThe CDM-Coordinator is appointed only in the elusion of notifiable projects. That covers all the construction works which are scheduled to last more than 30 days or involve more than 500 person-days of work. A person- day is defined as one individual carrying out construction work during one normal working day (St John Holt, 2005).An important part of the CDM-Coordinators duties is to work close to designers in order to ensure they get the right information are the good moment and to supervise their work in order to figure out if they consider hazard, risks and control (WS Atkins Consultants, rev A. Gilbertson, 2004).The DesignerDesigners have a key role in managing health and safety on site. They are the persons or companies who can prevent risks at the source (Semple Fraser, 2007). The designer is the one who analyse site information and prepare drawings and specifications for the project. He can be an architect, a cut down surveyor or an engineer (HSE, 2006). For complex projects, several designers can be appointed to split the design and ensure to identify and examine all the health and safety factors that need to be addressed (WS Atkins Consultants, rev A. Gilbertson, 2004).The main duties of a designers areEliminate hazards and reduce health and safety risksProvide all the stakeholders with information about the remaining risks that could be eliminatedEnsure the client is aware of duties and that he (it?) appointed a CDM-CoordinatorUpdate the health and safety file with all the new information concerning health and safety mattersCooperate with the CDM-Coordinator and the other designers and supply the relevant informationDesigners have the duty of indentifying and eliminating hazards and reduce the risks of those which cannot be eliminated (HSC, 2007) by using risk sagaciousness methods to detect foreseeable risk and ensure the safety of workers by tackling the problem at the source. For this purpose they have to reduce de likelihood of harmful occurrences and the potential insensibility of harm resultant from it, limit the number of people exposed the these occurrences on site as well as and the duration and frequency of exposition (Howarth Watson, 2009).The Prin cipal ContractorThe Principal Contractor is an individual or a company appointed early in the construction process by the Client and is responsible for planning, managing and controlling health and safety on site during the construction phase of the project (HSE, 2006). The Principal Contractor is usually the main Contractor of the project. He (it?) has to ensure a good cooperation and coordination of work between the Contractors involved in the construction because of the fact they may work on the same(p) site at the same time and then interaction between then can create unexpected hazards (HSC, 2007).The duties imposed to the Principal Contractor are (Howarth Watson, 2009) (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004) (HSE, 2006)Plan, manage and control construction phases and provide a good communication with ContractorsCreate and implement the health and safety plan on the base of the pre-construction planSet up site rulesProvide Contractors with all the information available concerning health and safety matters to ensure safety of their workersEnsure the availability of suitable welfare facilities at the beginning of the work and maintain it during the duration of the construction phaseCheck the resource availability and the competence of its (his?) appointed stakeholdersProvide the workers with an induction when they arrive on site and besides training and information for specific workMake the site a safe place and restrict access to people involved in the constructionConsult with the workers and liaise with the CDM-CoordinatorThe Principal Contractor has a significant health implication when designs change or decisions are modified. The consultation process with the workers and the CDM-Coordinator permits to make everyone aware of the new updates in the construction phase plan and of the changing in managing health and safety (Semple Fraser, 2007).The ContractorThe Contractor is any person or company who is in charge of the carrying out or the management of the const ruction work. The Contractor can also organise the work of other stakeholders who carry out the work on his (it ?) behalf (Joyston-Bechal Grice, 2004).The duties of the Contractor are (Howarth Watson, 2009) (HSC, 2007)Plan, manage and control own work and that of workersCheck competence of workers and sub-contractorsSpecific training for workersProvide health and safety information to workersMake sure workers beneficiate of suitable welfare facilitiesCheck the project is notified before starting the workCooperate with other Contractors and with the Principal ContractorProvide any information to update the health and safety fileReport any accidents, diseases and dangerous occurrences to the Principal Contractor as well as problems with the health and safety plan.Most of the time on large projects, several contractors work at the same time on the same site. In this case it is essential they cooperate with each other and follow the instructions of the Principal Contractor not to inte ract and create new hazards on site. The contractors should ask for the health and safety construction phase plan produced by the Principal Contractor to get all the information they need to ensure safety of their employees (HSE, 2006).