Regulation 8 – General Duties for the Principal Contractor
A designer (including a principal Designer) or contractor (including a principal contractor) appointed to work on a project must have the skills, knowledge and experience, and, if they are an organisation, the organisational capability, necessary to fulfil the role that they are appointed to undertake, in a manner that secures the health and safety of any person affected by the project.
A designer or contractor must not accept an appointment to a project unless they fulfil the conditions in paragraph (1)
A person who is responsible for appointing a designer or contractor to carry out work on a project must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that the designer or contractor fulfils the condition in paragraph (2)
A person with a duty or function under these Regulations must cooperate with any other person working on or in relation to a project, at the same or an adjoining construction site, to the extent necessary to enable any person with a duty or function to fulfil that duty or function
A person working on a project under the control of another must report to that person anything they are aware of in relation to the project which is likely to endanger their own health or safety or that of others
Any person who is required by these regulations to provide information or instruction must ensure the information or instruction is comprehensible and provided as soon as is practicable
To the extent that they are applicable to a domestic client the duties in paragraphs (3), (4) and (6) must be carried out by the person specified in regulation 7(1). (see Domestic Client link)
Regulation 13 – Duties of a principal contractor in relation to health and safety at the construction phase
The principal contractor must plan, manage and monitor the construction phase and coordinate matters relating to health and safety during the construction phase to ensure that, so far as is reasonably practicable, construction work is carried out without risks to health or safety
n fulfilling the duties in paragraph (1), and in particular when –
a. Design, technical and organisational aspects are being decided in order to plan the various items or stages of work which are to take place simultaneously or in succession; and
b. Estimating the period of time required to complete the works or work stages
The principal contractor must take into account the general principles of prevention
The Principal contractor must –
a. Organise cooperation between contractors (including successive contractors on the same construction site);
b. Coordinate Implementation by the contractors of applicable legal requirements for health and safety; and
c. Ensure that employers and, if necessary for the protection of workers, self-employed persons –
i. Apply the general principles of prevention in a consistent manner, and in particular when complying with the provisions of Part 4; and
ii. Where required, follow the construction phase plan
The Principal contractor must ensure that –
a. A suitable site induction is provided
b. The necessary steps are taken to prevent access by unauthorised persons to the construction site; and
c. Facilities that comply with the requirements of schedule 2 are provided throughout the construction phase
The principal contractor must liaise with the principal designer for the duration of the principal designer’s appointment and share with the principal designer information relevant to the planning, management and monitoring of the pre-construction phase and the coordination of health and safety maters during the pre-construction phase.
Regulation 13 – Duties of a principal contractor in relation to health and safety at the construction phase
The Principal contractor must –
a. Make and maintain arrangements which will enable the principal contractor and workers engaged in construction work to cooperate effectively in developing, promoting and checking the effectiveness of measures to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the workers;
b. Consult those workers or their representatives in good time on matters connected with the project which may affect their health, safety or welfare in so far as they or their representatives have not been similarly consulted by their employer:
c. Ensure that those workers or their representatives can inspect and take copies of any information which the principal contractor has, or which these regulations require to be provided to the principal contractor, which relate to the health safety or welfare of the workers at the site, except any information –
i. The disclosure of which would be against the interest of national security
ii. Which the principal contractor could not disclose without contravening a prohibition imposed by or under an enactment;
iii. Relating specifically to an individual, unless that individual has consented to its being disclosed;
iv. The disclosure of which would, for reasons other than its effect on health, safety or welfare at work, cause substantial injury to the principal contractors undertaking or, where the information was supplied to the principal contractor by another person, to the undertaking of that other person.
v. Obtained by the principal contractor for the purpose of bring, prosecuting or defending any legal proceedings
Regulation 12 – Principal Contractors Duties in relation to the Construction Phase Plan and Health and Safety File
During the pre-construction phase, and before setting up a construction site, the principal contractor must draw up a construction phase plan, or make arrangements for a construction phase plan to be drawn up.
The construction phase plan must set out the health and safety arrangements and site rules taking account, where necessary, of the industrial activities taking place on the construction site and, where applicable, must include specific measures concerning work which falls within one or more of the categories set out in schedule
Throughout the project the principal contractor must ensure that the construction phase plan is appropriately reviewed, updated and revised from time to time so that it continues to be sufficient to ensure that construction work is carried out, so far as is reasonable practicable, without risks to health or safety
During the project the principal contractor must provide the principal designer with any information in the principal contractors possession relevant to the health and safety file, for inclusion in the health and safety file
Where the health and safety file is passed to the principal contractor under paragraph (8), the principal contractor must ensure that the health and safety file is appropriately reviewed, updated and revised from time to time to take account of the work and any changes that have occurred
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