CDM stands for Construction (Design and Management), and the regulations that carry the name are the UK's rules for organising health and safety on a construction project. The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, cited below, place duties on clients, designers, principal designers, principal contractors, contractors and workers, and regulation 12 is where the construction phase plan and the health and safety file sit. For a small contractor the practical meaning is a RAMS per task, supplied to the principal contractor and approved against the construction phase plan before the task starts, or, as sole contractor, a proportionate plan of their own. The risk assessment and method statement tool on this site prints the RAMS, free and without an account.
Design and management
The two words are the two halves of the regulations: designers must design out risk where they can, and the project must be managed so the remaining risks are controlled. The principal designer owns the first; the principal contractor the second.
The duty holders
Client, designer, principal designer, principal contractor, contractor, worker, each with duties the HSE's CDM pages, cited below, describe. Where more than one contractor is involved the principal roles are appointed; where there is one, that contractor draws up the plan.
The documents
Pre-construction information, the construction phase plan, the RAMS per task, the health and safety file. The plan is the rule book; the RAMS is checked against it; the file is what the client keeps for future work.
The contractor's part
A signed, site-specific RAMS per task, consistent with the plan, submitted before the task is programmed. Regulation 3 of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, cited below, requires every employer to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to the health and safety of their employees, and regulation 3(6) requires an employer with five or more employees to record the significant findings and any group of employees especially at risk. DailyLogDesk Pro keeps the RAMS against the job; the tool prints it.
Questions people ask about cdm stands for
When was CDM introduced?
The current regulations are the 2015 ones, cited below, which replaced the 2007 set.
Does CDM apply to maintenance work?
To construction work as the regulations define it, which includes much maintenance and refurbishment.
Is the tool free?
Yes, without an account.