The
pre - tender health and safety plan
The pre-tender stage health and safety plan-
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994: CDM
(Series: HSE information sheet; Construction Sheet
No 42)
Introduction
This information sheet gives guidance on the
pre-tender stage health and safety plan which is
required under the Construction (Design and
Management) Regulations 1994 (CDM Regulations).
The CDM Regulations place duties on all those who
can contribute to the health and safety of a
construction project. Duties are placed upon
clients, designers, contractors and the Regulations
create a new duty holder - the planning supervisor.
They also introduce new documents - health and
safety plans and the health and safety file.
The
client has to appoint:
-
a planning supervisor to co-ordinate and manage
health and safety during the design and early
stages of preparation; and
-
a principal contractor to co-ordinate and manage
health and safety issues during the construction
work.
One of the duties placed on the planning supervisor
is to ensure that a pre-tender stage health and
safety plan is prepared before arrangements are made
for the principal contractor to carry out or manage
construction work. The principal contractor is then
required to develop the health and safety plan
before work starts on site and keep it up to date
throughout the construction phase. Further
information on the health and safety plan during the
construction phase is given in Construction
Information Sheet No 43.
The degree of detail required in the pre-tender
stage health and safety plan and the time and effort
involved in preparing it should be in proportion to
the nature, size and level of health and safety
risks involved in the project. Projects involving
minimal risks will call for straightforward plans.
Large projects or those involving significant risks
will require more detail.
What is the pre-tender stage health and safety plan?
The pre-tender stage health and safety plan is
essentially a collection of information about the
significant health and safety risks of the
construction project which the principal contractor
will have to manage during the construction phase.
The
information in the pre-tender stage health and
safety plan will mainly come from:
the client, who has to provide information relevant
to health and safety to the planning supervisor.
This could include existing drawings, surveys of the
site or premises; information on the location of
services, etc; and
designers, who have to provide information about the
risks which cannot be avoided and will have to be
controlled by the principal contractor and other
contractors. Typically this information may be
provided on drawings, in written specifications or
in outline method statements.
What is the purpose of the pre-tender stage health
and safety plan?
The
pre-tender stage health and safety plan serves three
main purposes:
-
During its development the plan can provide a
focus at which the health and safety
considerations of design are brought together
under the control of the planning supervisor
-
Secondly, the plan plays a vital role in the
tender documentation. It enables prospective
principal contractors to be fully aware of the
project's health and safety and welfare
requirements. This will allow prospective
principal contractors to have a level playing
field as far as health and safety is concerned
on which to provide tender submissions
-
Thirdly, the plan provides a template against
which different tender submissions can be
measured. This helps the planning supervisor to
advise the client on the provision of resources
for health and safety and to assess the
competence of prospective principal contractors.
Who
prepares the pre-tender stage health and safety
plan?
The planning supervisor is responsible for ensuring that
the pre-tender stage health and safety plan is
prepared. This does not mean that the planning
supervisor must produce the plan directly, but the
planning supervisor must ensure that it is prepared.
What should go in a pre-tender stage health and
safety plan?
The contents of the pre-tender stage health and
safety plan will depend on the nature of the project
itself.
However, the following areas should be considered:
-
Nature of the project (location, nature of
construction work, etc)
-
The existing environment (existing services,
surrounding land use, ground conditions, etc)
-
Existing drawings (available drawings of the
structure and the health and safety file if
there is one)
-
The design (information on the significant risks
which cannot be avoided)
-
Construction materials (health hazards from
construction materials which cannot be avoided)
-
Site-wide elements (positioning of site access
or egress points, location of unloading, layout
and storage areas, traffic routes, etc).
-
Overlap with the client's undertaking
(particularly where construction work is to take
place at the client's premises)
-
Site rules (could include emergency procedures,
permit-to-work rules, etc laid down by the
client when work takes place at the client's
premises)
-
Continuing liaison (procedures for dealing with
design work prepared for the construction
phase).
For projects where a significant amount of design
work will be prepared as construction proceeds,
specific arrangements for dealing with this work may
need to be set out in the pre-tender stage health
and safety plan. This is important to ensure that
the health and safety aspects of the design work are
considered and dealt with properly by designers and
the planning supervisor during the construction
phase. This will particularly occur under the
various design and build and management contracting
forms of procurement.
What format should the pre-tender stage health and
safety plan be in?
If the pre-tender stage health and safety plan is to
be effective in helping to select a principal
contractor, the planning supervisor and any other
professional advisers who put together the tender
documentation will need to determine what is the
most suitable format for the plan.
Clearly the way the pre-tender stage health and
safety plan is included in the tender documentation
and is structured is essential if responses on
health and safety are to be made by prospective
principal contractors. The pre-tender stage health
and safety plan does not have to be a separate
document. If the project is a large and complex one,
a separate document which ensures that the key
information is highlighted, makes sense. However, on
small projects, some of the information outlined in
the section What should go in a pre-tender stage
health and safety plan? will already be in existing
tender documentation. In this case, the key
information can be highlighted in a covering letter
or by use of an index pointing to which information
should be considered.
References and further information
-
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994 SI 1994 No 3140 HMSO 1995 ISBN 0 11 043845
0
-
HSC Managing construction for health and safety
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations
1994 Approved Code of Practice L54 HSE Books
1995 ISBN 0 7176 0792 5
-
HSC A guide to managing health and safety in
construction HSE Books 1995 ISBN 0 7176 0755 0
-
If you need further information or advice please
contact your local HSE office. The phone number
is listed in directories under Health and Safety
Executive.
-
HSE priced and free publications are available
by mail order from:
HSE Books, PO Box 1999, Sudbury, Suffolk CO10
6FS Tel: 01787 881165; Fax: 01787 313995.
-
HSE priced publications are available from good
booksellers.
-
For other enquiries ring HSE's Infoline, tel:
0541 545500, or write to HSE's Information
Centre, Broad Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ
Construction Information Sheets:
-
No 38 Transitional provisions
-
No 39 The role of the client
-
No 40 The role of the planning supervisor
-
No 41 The role of the designer
-
No 43 The health and safety plan during the
construction phase
-
No 44 The health and safety file
This guidance is issued by the Health and Safety
Executive. Following the guidance is not compulsory
and you are free to take other action. But if you
follow the guidance you will normally be doing
enough to comply with the law. Health and safety
inspectors seek to ensure compliance with the law
and may refer to this guidance as illustrating good
practice.
Our consultants are individually accredited under
The British Accreditation Bureau scheme.
Oldham Associates is recognised as a leading
advisory partnership, with specialist expertise in
the Construction Industry and its associated
businesses. Our consultants have specialist
expertise to assist you with :
The Construction Design And Management Regulations,
Planning Supervisors role, CDM, H&S policies, method
statements, seminars, training, courses and
workshops.
Our
Construction Health and Safety
consultants are able to produce, all health and
Safety related documents including, project specific
Method Statements and Risk Assessments and Pre-
Tender Health and Safety Plans. Oldham Associates
have in house specialist expertise of Contract
Management and Contract Law.
|
