CROSS Safety Report
Ensuring CDM safety files are transferred after change of ownership
This report is over 2 years old
Overview
Concerns are raised that there is no effective system in place to ensure CDM safety files are passed on to new owners when properties change hands.
Key Learning Outcomes
For policy makers:
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Consider introducing a system that will ensure CDM safety files are part of the transaction when property changes ownership
For civil and structural design engineers:
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CDM safety files are legal documents to be prepared, maintained, and passed on to clients. Full details are given in the HSE document: Managing health and safety in construction, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015
Full Report
Find out more about the Full Report
The Full Report below has been submitted to CROSS and describes the reporter’s experience. The text has been edited for clarity and to ensure anonymity and confidentiality by removing any identifiable details. If you would like to know more about our secure reporting process or submit a report yourself, please visit the reporting to CROSS-UK page.
The whole point of the safety files prescribed under the CDM Regulations 2015 (CDM2015), says a reporter, is that they shall be of assistance in the future, to owners and operators of buildings and other structures. They are not simply a chore to be signed off at the end of a complicated job. Many vital components are hidden on completion, particularly elements such as electricity cables, pre-stressing tendons, foundations, and the accurate location of services, or even culverts running beneath buildings.
Difficulties arise when properties change hands, because there is no effective system to see that these details are passed on to the new owners. Legally the owner disposing of a property possessing a safety file is obliged to transfer it, but the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not have the resources to prosecute.
The Law Society has a very complicated form to be completed when a property is sold, this covers things as detailed as 'how much central heating oil is in the tank and are the light bulbs included?' Suggestions were put forward by the reporter some time ago to the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) and the HSE that the property transfer form should be altered to include the CDM safety files, but nothing has happened yet so far as he knows.
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Feedback
As a working structural engineer I am disappointed that there is not stronger action from HSE. We are often working on altering existing buildings that were built after CDM's introduction, and the Health and Safety File is not provided. On Design & Build we are very far down the food chain and any query produces shrugs. I feel this aspect strongly as it adds uncertainty and risk and probably cost to the work, that should not be necessary. I have a strong suspicion that the H&S File exists somewhere, but inertia and ignorance is denying the designers and contractors sight of the information. This is an area where a few well publicised prosecutions could provide significant safety benefits.
Expert Panel Comments
Expert Panels comment on the reports we receive. They use their experience to help you understand what can be learned from the reports. If you would like to know more, please visit the CROSS-UK Expert Panels page.
This contribution reflects a general theme that as time moves on, people forget what the prime purpose of an activity was in the first place. A number of CROSS contributions over the years show the danger of owners altering structures without realising the implications simply by lack of knowledge of not knowing what is there. Passing on to each owner details about the fabric of a building makes obvious sense.
A number of CROSS contributions over the years show the danger of owners altering structures without realising the implications simply by lack of knowledge of not knowing what is there
More formally, CDM files are legal documents to be prepared, maintained, and passed on to clients. Full details are given in the HSE document: Managing health and safety in construction, Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. An extract from Appendix 4 of this document says:
For the structural engineer the principal factor is that there should be sufficient accurate information to help when maintenance, modifications or de-commissioning are proposed. Structural engineers as well as other duty holders should, as a matter of good practice, draw the attention of their clients in a specific manner to this key responsibility in respect of the handover of the health & safety file. As a next step, following on from this report, HSE, ICE and IStructE will consider how the matter can be progressed.