1 The
Legal Position
Construction (Design
and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM) came into force on 6th April
2015 and apply to all ‘construction’ which now includes all event build up and
break down activities including shell scheme erection. It only applies in the UK.
It should be noted
that at the time of publishing this document the HSE had only published event
industry guidance in draft and aeo organisers have yet to formalise a common
industry approach. This should therefore
be regarded as interim guidance subject to review as common practices develop.
CDM is an important piece of criminal law and so it needs to
be taken seriously, however the HSE have been clear that they will not
prosecute or take enforcement action against event companies which are
compliant with the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) and other relevant
legislation and are manifestly discharging their existing duties of care. The vulnerability for organisers here is
where contractors and exhibitors working on site are not compliant with HASAWA
and related law.
2 Roles
and Responsibilities
The HSE guidance to
CDM is L153 which can be obtained from the HSE website. The HSE has in addition published guidance
with organograms for the events industry which show how the various duties apply. At the time of writing these documents were
still in draft. For most practical purposes at exhibition and
conferences the organiser assumes the key roles which are as follows:
·
The
‘Client’ – the party on whose behalf the event is being run although this could
be an external body like a trade body who commissions a professional organiser
to run the event. Essentially it is the
owner of the event. These duties will
normally rest with the head of the event portfolio such as the MD or portfolio
MD.
·
‘The
‘Principal Designer’ (PD) – is the party responsible for the overall
concept. Essentially this is the event
director/manager or equivalent.
·
The
‘Principal Contractor’ (PC) - is the party responsible for delivering the
construction phase and this is the operations team.
For small events it
could be that one person takes on more than one role or even all of them.
It is fundamental to
CDM that the Client takes overall responsibility for health and safety. It indicates that senior management will have
to take a more proactive role in health and safety to ensure that they can have
complete faith in the PC (operations team) to deliver on health and safety and
that they have the necessary resources to do so. Venues within tenanted areas under CDM become
a ‘Contractor’ supplying services to the Client so CDM may also mean that the
operations team receives less proactive support from the venues on health and
safety issues.
It will have to be
determined on an event by event basis the extent to which either venues or
organisers have the primary duties under CDM for external roads and common
areas which may be shared with other users not related to the event.
Exhibitors with
large or complex stands are seen as essentially having their own mini CDM site
within the context of the whole site with their own Client, PD and PC. For practical purposes, unless there is
specific guidance on this, most organisers should continue to manage and check
stands as they currently do.
3 Application
of CDM During Build Up and Break Down
3.1 HSE’s
Key Principles
The draft HSE’s guidance states that the key principles to
managing construction safety are as follows:
·
eliminate or control risks so far as is
reasonably practicable
·
ensure work is effectively planned
·
appointing the right people and organisations at
the right time
·
making sure that everyone has the right
information, instruction, training and supervision to carry out their work
safely and without risks to health
·
have systems in place to help parties cooperate
and communicate with each other and coordinate their work
·
consult workers with a view to securing effective
heath safety and welfare measures
·
any actions required should always be sensible
and proportionate to the risk.
None of the above is in addition to exiting duties under
HASAWA. The HSE have emphasised that
they will take a proportionate approach to enforcement and will not seek
compliance for its own sake where the key principles have been applied.
3.2 Notification
to HSE
A project is notifiable if the construction
work on a construction site is scheduled to:
(a) last longer
than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at
any point in the project; or
(b) exceed 500 person days
There will be a form for notifying the HSE published in the
guidance.
The vast majority of events will probably not be notifiable. Even so the HSE has stated that notification
is not an issue. It will be left to the
Client to decide whether or not an event is notifiable and whether or not to
combine the build and break down to trigger the threshold or to treat each
separately. The HSE will not take action
for failure to notify. In the short term
unless the event is quite obviously notifiable it is reasonable to wait for the
events industry to develop a position on this.
3.3 Construction
Phase & Construction Phase Safety Plan
The construction phase need not necessarily overlap exactly
the build up and break down phase where CDM site conditions apply. The most obvious example is where on the
final day of build, construction type controls such as the wearing of Personal
Protective Equipment (PPE) can be relaxed as construction activities make way
for non-construction work such as cleaning and stand dressing. Operations teams should think about
formalising this into the Construction Phase Safety Plan (CSP).
The CSP is a specific legal requirement under CDM and
operations teams should prepare a CSP. A
suggested outline format is as follows:
|
Name of Event and Venue
|
|
|
Principal Contractor
details
|
This would normally the legal entity which is the organiser – not
individuals
|
|
Client Details
|
This would normally be the legal entity which is the organiser – not
individuals or the ultimate client if the event is not owned by the organiser
|
|
Principal Designer Details
|
This would normally be the legal entity which is the organiser – not
individuals
|
|
Description of Work/Event
|
Brief overview
|
|
Key dates
(start/finish/other)
|
Build, Breakdown and indication if the construction phases are
different e.g. the construction phase ending on the last day of build.
|
|
Key roles in the
Event/Operations team
|
A organogram should suffice
|
|
How the work will be
managed safely
|
Include details of the site rules, arrangements for daily
briefing/update/coordination meetings, site inductions, welfare facilities,
fire and emergency procedures and,
arrangements for the control of specific risk (such as falls from
height, collapse of structures, crane operations, heavy lifting etc)
|
The CSP is not the Event Safety File per se but would be
included within it (see below).
3.4 Health
and Safety File
This is a specific legal
requirement. The health and safety file
as defined by L153 is ‘a file appropriate to the characteristics of the project,
containing relevant health and safety information to be taken into account
during any subsequent project’. Unless
further guidance or direction is given this may be deemed to be the Event
Safety File which is normal event best practice and would now include the CSP
as above.
3.5 Site
Access Control and Site Induction
The aim of CDM is to ensure that only persons who are deemed
to be competent (i.e having the necessary skills, knowledge and experience)
with regard to working on a construction site are permitted to gain access
during the construction phase.
Operations teams need to ensure that all potential occupants
during the construction phase (i.e.
not necessarily during late build and opening morning if construction activity
ends prior to the end of build up) have received the site safety rules and that
site access during the construction phase is restricted to the following:
·
Organiser’s staff
·
Venue staff assigned to the event
·
Accredited contractors’ staff (note this
includes venue contractors)
·
Exhibitors and Exhibitors’ Contractors.
3.6 Key
Risks and Site Rules
At present the eGuide should be regarded as the template for
general site rules at exhibitions and similar events. Over time it is likely that the guide will be
amended by the AEV to reflect new best practice compliant with CDM. There are three areas which the HSE has
identified as warranting special attention which are:
·
Work at heights and in particular working on
live edges
·
Control of moving vehicles and in particular the
separation of pedestrians from close proximity with moving vehicles
·
Wearing of PPE
These areas should be targeted for improvement until
specific industry guidance is produced.
It should be anticipated that the wearing of high visibility vests and
safety shoes during the construction phase is likely to become a standard
industry requirement.
