Farming Monthly National April 2016 | Page 48

| Buildings Construction safety on the farm – get up to date with CDM regulations Farm building maintenance and expansion is something that many farmers will undertake at some point during the year. owever, anything that involves construction work on a farm is subject to CDM Regulations (Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015) which came into force in April 2015. The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), working with industry, developed guidance on the changes to CDM regulations to help protect the health and safety of construction workers. The aim of the amended regulations was to cut bureaucracy for businesses and make them simpler to understand while still providing protection for workers. CITB has produced an app for Smart phones and tablets, called the CDM Wizard, to help develop a construction phase plan, as required by the Regulations. The app has been a runaway success, being downloaded over 50,000 times since its 2015 launch, as it walks the user through the construction activities to provide H advice and guidance on the risks involved and how these can be eliminated or controlled. Under the CDM Regulations farms are considered as a commercial client and therefore the regulations will apply in full. This means that a farm will have overall responsibility for the successful management of a construction project and they will need to formally appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor to assist them to exercise their duties. Clients must also make suitable arrangements to ensure that, throughout the planning, design and construction of a project, adequate consideration is given to the health, safety and welfare of all those affec FVB