PRINCIPAL DESIGNER & THE CLIENT ADVISOR ROLE

What is a Principal Designer?
A Principal Designer is an organisation (or an individual) appointed by a client to take responsibility and control of the pre-construction phase of a project, where more than one contractor will be involved.

Why do I need a Principal Designer?
The Regulations state that ‘where there is to be more than one contractor working on a project at any time, the client must appoint in writing a Principal Designer to have control over the pre-construction phase’. As part of the new CDM Regulations, more emphasis has been placed on Clients and increased their duties that need to be carried out as part of the Regulations. Should Clients not follow the new CDM Regulations 2015 and the guidance it provides then the Law clearly states that the burden of compliance will fall to the client.

On all projects, the client is deemed to assume the duties and responsibilities of the duty holders until a relevant appointment is made, thus increasing their risk on the project.

How can AHR help?
AHR are able to offer a number of services to clients to fulfil these duties and reduce their risk. We offer the following roles:

Principal Designer
We’re able to draw from a wide range of professional disciplines in order to provide the necessary skills to fulfil this role. As part of this role, we’ll: 

• Plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase
• Review and record all relevant information that might affect design work carried out both before and after the construction phase
• Help and advise in combining of pre-construction information, provide this information to any designers and contractors
• Work with other designers also appointed to the project to eliminate foreseeable health and safety risks and, where that is not possible, plan and act to reduce or limit those risks.
• Ensure the communication and cooperation of everyone involved in the pre-construction stage
• Liaise with the principal contractor in order to keep them informed of any risks that need to be managed during the construction phase

Client Advisor
We take pride in providing clients with a service which not only addresses obligations of the client under the CDM Regulations, but also provides an impartial service in dealing with the Construction Teams.

Whilst responsibility cannot be transferred from the client by law, we can provide peace of mind that all the duties are being carried out to a satisfactory level. 

Health & Safety Site Audits
AHR offer additional services over & above the requirements of the CDM Regulations and ‘snapshot’ reporting, which involves undertaking ‘snapshot’ reporting of Health & Safety standards being adopted on construction sites.