Introduced on 6 April, the revised regulations mean all events with structures must have a client who in turn appoints both a principal designer (PD) and a principal contractor (PC). The PD's primary role it is to ensure that health and safety is planned into a project from the design stage through to the start on site, while the PC takes charge of, and manages, health and safety on site.
Available for free download at http://www.stareventsltd.com, Star's 20-page CDM Ready! document draws from the HSE's latest draft to explain the impact on the event industry and how to comply.
It goes on to detail the company's own response, from designing out Work at Height where possible, to creating a raft of measures to protect workers who remain at risk of injury from falling, all of which come under the SEWPS umbrella (Star Events Worker Protection Systems).
The HSE says, "Anyone appointing PDs/designers and PCs/contractors must take reasonable steps to satisfy themselves that those who will carry out the work have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience and where they are an organisation, the organisational capacity, to carry out the work in a way which secures health and safety."
Roger Barrett, special projects director at Star Events, comments, "The law is in place and we have addressed the fact that there isn't any event industry guidance out there yet. The HSE will publish a document in due course and CDM Ready! is painstakingly researched to stay in step with those guidelines."
(Jim Evans)
