Principal Designer
If more than one contractor is involved in the project, then a Principal Designer must be appointed as they will plan, manage and co-ordinate the health and safety during the pre-construction stage. (Note that reference to more than one contractor refers to more than one contractor organisation, not more than one individual worker.)
The principal designer facilitates proper communication, co-operation and co-ordination between all the contractors involved in the project. The co-ordinated design should eliminate or minimise any risks created by the planned project work in advance of the work commencing.
Health and Safety file
The principal designer will also compile the Health and Safety file with all the information the client needs to know about the new or modified structure.
This will be passed to the client on completion of the project. The client must then keep the file up to date and make it available to workers that may need to review its contents for any future planned works.
Typical contents would include:
- Description of the work
- Residual hazards
- Key structural principles
- Any hazardous materials used
- Information relevant to dismantling and removal
- Information on specialist cleaning or maintenance of equipment
- Nature locations and markings of significant utilities and services
- Drawings of the structure and information about new plant and equipment.