Commercial Client Obligations

Under the CDM Regulation (2015) and the Building Safety (Act 2022) is our responsibility to inform the client of their duties.

The function of the roles of client, principal designer, and principal contractor under:

  • CDM Regulations is to manage the health and safety of workers and anyone around the site during building work
  • Building Safety Act is to make sure design and building work complies with Building Regulations

There are different competence requirements for the principal contractor and principal designer under CDM and under Building Safety Act. The client must appoint individuals or organisations to these roles.

The principal designer and principal contractor for CDM can also carry out these same roles for Building Safety Act. If they are the same, the client must confirm this in writing to those they appoint to the roles.

When the individuals or organisations in these roles are different under CDM and Building Safety Act, they need to work together and share relevant information.

CDM Duties

CDM 2015 makes a distinction between commercial clients and domestic clients. Client duties apply in full to commercial clients (for domestic clients the duties normally pass to other dutyholders).

A commercial client is any individual or organisation that carries out a construction project as part of a business. 

Commercial clients have a crucial influence over how projects are run, including the management of health and safety risks. Whatever the project size, the commercial client has contractual control, appoints designers and contractors, and determines the money, time and other resources for the project.

For all projects, commercial clients must:

  • make suitable arrangements for managing their project, enabling those carrying it out to manage health and safety risks in a proportionate way. These arrangements include:
    • appointing the contractors and designers to the project (including the principal designer and principal contractor on projects involving more than one contractor) while making sure they have the skills, knowledge, experience and organisational capability
    • allowing sufficient time and resources for each stage of the project
    • making sure that any principal designer and principal contractor appointed carry out their duties in managing the project
    • making sure suitable welfare facilities are provided for the duration of the construction work
  • maintain and review the management arrangements for the duration of the project
  • provide pre-construction information to every designer and contractor either bidding for the work or already appointed to the project
  • ensure that the principal contractor or contractor (for single contractor projects) prepares a construction phase plan before that phase begins
  • ensure that the principal designer prepares a health and safety file for the project and that it is revised as necessary and made available to anyone who needs it for subsequent work at the site
    • For notifiable projects (where planned construction work will last longer than 30 working days and involves more than 20 workers at any one time; or where the work exceeds 500 individual worker days), commercial clients must:
    • notify HSE in writing with details of the project
    • ensure a copy of the notification is displayed in the construction site office

Building Safety Act Duties

Building and design work is done on behalf of the client, in relation to the client’s business. A client can be an organisation or an individual. They will often be a developer or the building owner. 

Managing the project

As the client, you must make suitable arrangements for planning, managing, and monitoring a project so it complies with all relevant requirements on completion.

You must:

  • allocate enough time and resource for the building work to comply with Building Regulations
  • establish, review, and maintain systems and arrangements to meet Building Regulations
  • co-operate with others working on the project so they can comply with their duties
  • enable co-operation between designers and contractors

You must provide building information to every designer and contractor working on the project. Building information relates to:

  • the building work or design work
  • the planning and management of the project
  • any issues involving compliance with relevant requirements and how they have been addressed

Appointing designers and contractors

You must take all reasonable steps to appoint designers and contractors with the necessary competence or organisational capability to carry out their roles.

If there is more than one designer or contractor working on the project, you must appoint in writing a:

  • principal designer to be in control of design work
  • principal contractor to be in control of the building work

If the project has only one designer, they are the principal designer. If the project has only one contractor, they are the principal contractor.

Appointing an organisation as principal designer or principal contractor

You can appoint an organisation as the principal designer or principal contractor. The organisation must designate a competent individual from within the organisation to carry out the functions of the role. This does not make the individual the principal designer or principal contractor – the legal responsibilities remain with the organisation.

Higher-risk building work: clients’ duties

As the client, if your project involves higher-risk building work you must manage the application for building control approval. This includes providing certain documents and information to Building Safety Regulator (BSR), such as:

  • drawings and plans
  • a competence declaration
  • a construction control plan
  • a change control plan
  • a mandatory occurrence reporting plan

Find out more about the documents and information you must provide to BSR in the guide managing building control approval for higher-risk buildings.

In addition to managing the building control approval application, you must also:

  • make sure the principal designer and principal contractor have a mandatory occurrence reporting systemin place
  • allow for a periodic review of the building and design work to identify whether it is higher-risk building work
  • provide information to designers and contractors so they are aware the project involves higher-risk building work

You must put in place a record of information about the building (also known as the golden thread). You must provide the information to relevant individuals and organisations, such as accountable persons.

When you, or the principal designer or principal contractor appoint an individual or organisation to carry out work, you must:

Higher-risk building work: individuals or organisations with serious sanctions

As the client, you must tell BSR if an individual or organisation is appointed that has been issued with a serious sanction in the last 5 years. This covers appointments made by you, the principal designer or the principal contractor.

 A serious sanction can be:

  • a compliance notice which refers to a contravention or likely contravention of a requirement of Part A (structure) or Part B (fire safety) of Schedule 1 of the Building Act 1984
  • a stop notice under the Building Act 1984
  • convictions under the Building Act 1984, The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Building Safety Act 2022, or the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

A serious sanction can also be a report published under the Inquiries Act 2005 that finds an appointee’s actions, or inaction, resulted in one of the following:

  • one or more deaths
  • a likely contravention of any requirement under the Building Act 1984, The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, the Building Safety Act 2022, or the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

You must consider how any serious sanction and any resulting action by the individual or organisation affects their judgement or their capability to do the work.

You must provide information to BSR in the competence declaration and construction control plan about:

  • why you consider the individual or organisation is competent to carry out their duties, despite having a serious sanction issued against them
  • how you will mitigate the risks of appointing an individual or organisation with a serious sanction, such as checking their work more frequently

Clients’ duties: multiple clients

When there is more than one client for a project, the clients can nominate a lead client. All clients must confirm this in writing.

When there is a lead client, they must carry out all the clients’ duties for the project. The other clients, who are not the lead client, must:

  • provide building information to every designer and contractor working on the project
  • co-operate with others working on the project to enable them to comply with their duties
  • allow for a periodic review of the building and design work to identify whether it is higher-risk building work
  • provide information to designers and contractors so they are aware the project involves higher-risk building work