CDM 2015 for Retail Clients: What Your Legal Duties Actually Are

Most retail developers and operators know CDM exists. Fewer know that it places legal duties directly on them, not just on their contractor.

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply to virtually every retail construction project. And the client, meaning the developer or retailer who commissions the work, sits at the top of the duty holder structure. You cannot transfer that responsibility to a contractor or a designer. You can appoint people to help you discharge it, but the duty remains yours.

This post explains what your duties actually are, what you need to have in place before work starts, and what to check when you appoint a contractor.

Who CDM Applies To

CDM 2015 applies to all construction work in Great Britain. That includes new builds, fit outs, refurbishments, and maintenance work. There is no minimum value threshold. If you are commissioning construction work on a retail unit, CDM applies to you as the client.

The regulations distinguish between domestic clients, who are private individuals having work done on their own home, and commercial clients. Retail developers, investors, and operators are all commercial clients. The full set of client duties applies to you from the moment you decide to have construction work carried out.

Full guidance is published by the Health and Safety Executive.

The Duty Holders and What They Do

CDM 2015 creates a structure of duty holders, each with specific responsibilities. Understanding who does what is the starting point for knowing what you need to arrange before work begins.

The client is you. You commission the work and you are responsible for making suitable arrangements for managing the project so it is carried out safely and without risks to health.

The principal designer is appointed by you on notifiable projects. They coordinate health and safety during the pre-construction phase, which includes design, planning, and preparation. On a retail fit out or new build, the principal designer is typically the lead architect or a specialist CDM consultant. They are not the principal contractor.

The principal contractor is appointed by you to manage the construction phase. On most retail projects this is the main contractor. Their duties include producing the construction phase plan before work starts, managing site safety throughout the build, and coordinating all contractors working on the project.

Designers are anyone who prepares or modifies drawings, specifications, or other documents for construction. Your architect, structural engineer, M&E engineer, and fit out designers are all designers under CDM and all have duties to eliminate and reduce foreseeable risks in their designs.

Contractors are companies that carry out or manage construction work. Every subcontractor on your project is a contractor under CDM.

When a Project Is Notifiable

A project is notifiable to the Health and Safety Executive when the construction phase will last longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers simultaneously, or when the total volume of work exceeds 500 person days.

Most large format retail fit outs and all supermarket new builds will be notifiable. A small cosmetic refurbishment of a single unit may not be. If you are not sure, ask your contractor or a CDM adviser. Failing to notify a notifiable project is a breach of the regulations.

For notifiable projects, you are required to appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing before the construction phase begins. On non-notifiable projects those roles still exist but the formal written appointment requirement does not apply in the same way.

Your Specific Duties as a Client

The regulations set out client duties in specific terms. These are the things you are legally required to do.

1. Make suitable arrangements for managing the project so it is carried out safely and the health of workers is protected. This is the overarching duty and everything else follows from it.
2. Appoint a principal designer with the skills, knowledge, and experience to coordinate health and safety during pre-construction. The appointment must be in writing.
3. Appoint a principal contractor with the skills, knowledge, and experience to manage health and safety during the construction phase. The appointment must be in writing.
4. Ensure the principal designer and principal contractor carry out their duties. You do not manage the work yourself, but you are responsible for seeing that the people you appoint actually do what they are required to do.
5. Ensure that before the construction phase begins, the principal contractor has prepared a construction phase plan. You do not write the plan, but you need to confirm it exists and is suitable before work starts.
6. Ensure a health and safety file is prepared. For notifiable projects, the principal designer prepares this during pre-construction and hands it to the principal contractor to keep updated during the build. At handover, the file comes to you. You are responsible for keeping it and making it available to anyone who needs it in future.
7. Provide pre-construction information to designers and contractors. This means sharing everything you know about the site and the existing building that is relevant to health and safety. Asbestos surveys, structural drawings, utility records, previous occupier information, and anything else that affects how the work can be done safely.

Pre-Construction Information: What You Need to Provide

Your duty to provide pre-construction information is one of the most practical requirements in CDM and one of the most commonly neglected on retail projects.

Before anyone designs or builds anything, you need to gather and share the following where it exists:

1. An asbestos survey covering the areas that will be disturbed by the works. On any building constructed before 2000 this is mandatory before strip out starts.
2. Structural drawings and information about the existing building, particularly load-bearing elements, party walls, and any known structural deficiencies.
3. Utility records including the location and depth of underground services, the position of gas, electrical, and water mains, and the location of any overhead cables.
4. Previous occupier information, including any known contamination, buried obstructions, or previous structural alterations.
5. The ground investigation report if one has been carried out.
6. Any existing health and safety file from previous construction work on the building or site.

If this information does not exist and you know it should, you need to commission it before work starts, not leave the contractor to discover it on site. Handing over an incomplete asbestos survey and telling the contractor to manage the risk is not discharging your duty. It is transferring a risk to someone who cannot price it accurately and who has no control over what they are about to find.

The Construction Phase Plan

The principal contractor must produce a construction phase plan before work on site begins. This is a document that sets out how the construction phase will be managed safely. It covers site rules, welfare arrangements, emergency procedures, the sequence of high-risk activities, and how different contractors will be coordinated.

As the client, you do not write the construction phase plan. But you need to see it before work starts and satisfy yourself that it is suitable. A construction phase plan that is a generic template with no project-specific content is not suitable. Ask your principal contractor to show you the plan before they mobilise. If they cannot produce one, that is a significant warning sign.

The Health and Safety File

At the end of the project, you receive a health and safety file. This document records information about the completed building that is relevant to future construction, maintenance, or demolition work. It includes as-built drawings, details of materials used, the location of concealed services, maintenance requirements, and the outcome of any commissioning.

You are required to keep the health and safety file and make it available to anyone planning future construction work on the building. If you sell the building or transfer the lease, the file transfers with it. If you commission future work on the same building, the file forms part of the pre-construction information you provide to the new project team.

Many retail clients receive a health and safety file at handover and file it without reading it. The file is the reference document for every future fit out, refurbishment, or maintenance project on that building. Losing it or failing to maintain it creates exactly the kind of information gap that causes problems on future projects.

What to Check When You Appoint a Contractor

1. Does the contractor operate as principal contractor under CDM 2015, and can they confirm they hold this role on current projects?
2. Can they produce a relevant construction phase plan template before you appoint, so you can see what their standard looks like?
3. Do they hold CHAS accreditation or equivalent, which demonstrates that their health and safety management has been independently assessed?
4. Who will be the named principal contractor representative on your project, and what is their CDM experience?
5. What is their process for coordinating subcontractors under CDM, and how do they manage the handover of the health and safety file?

We operate as principal contractor on all of our retail construction projects. Our CDM process covers pre-construction information, construction phase planning, and health and safety file production as standard on every job. If you want to understand what your specific project requires under CDM before appointing anyone, get in touch with our team.