Free CDM Client Duties Checklist

CDM Client Duties Checklist FAQs

• Is this CDM Client Duties Checklist free?

  Yes. It is free to download, with no sign-up and no email address needed. Select Download the Word checklist and the file downloads straight away.

• What format is the checklist?

  A Microsoft Word document (.docx) of 8 A4 pages, with no macros. It has project details on the first page, a project set-up page, ten numbered sections, an outstanding client actions table and a completed / reviewed record. Each prompt is a Word content control, and each check has tick boxes for Done (or Reviewed / current) and N/A with space for the evidence, reference or action. The document is not locked, so it can be adapted, printed, or saved as a PDF once completed.

• What are a client's main duties under CDM 2015?

  A commercial client must make suitable arrangements for managing the project, including sufficient time and other resources and the required welfare facilities, and maintain and review them; provide pre-construction information; ensure a Construction Phase Plan is drawn up before the construction phase begins; and, where more than one contractor is involved or reasonably foreseeable, appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor in writing, ensure the Principal Designer prepares a Health and Safety File and take reasonable steps to ensure both comply with their duties (regulations 4 and 5 (opens in a new tab)). It must also take reasonable steps when appointing designers and contractors (regulation 8 (opens in a new tab)) and notify the project where regulation 6 (opens in a new tab) applies.

• When must a client appoint a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor?

  Where more than one contractor will work on the project, or this is reasonably foreseeable, the client must appoint in writing a designer with control over the pre-construction phase as Principal Designer and a contractor as Principal Contractor. The appointments must be made as soon as practicable and, in any event, before the construction phase begins (regulation 5 (opens in a new tab)).

• What happens if the client does not make the required appointments?

  The duties do not disappear. Where a client is required to appoint a Principal Designer or Principal Contractor and does not do so, the client must fulfil the relevant duties of that role itself (regulation 5(3) and (4) (opens in a new tab)). Domestic clients are treated differently: if a domestic client does not make the appointments, the designer in control of the pre-construction phase is the Principal Designer and the contractor in control of the construction phase is the Principal Contractor (regulation 7(2) (opens in a new tab)).

• What duties apply on a project with only one contractor?

  Where there is only one contractor, Regulation 5 does not require Principal Designer or Principal Contractor appointments solely because of the contractor count. The client still has the relevant Regulation 4 duties: suitable arrangements, sufficient time and resources, welfare, pre-construction information and ensuring the contractor draws up a Construction Phase Plan before the construction phase begins. Reasonable steps still apply when appointing the contractor and any designer, and the project may still be notifiable. A Health and Safety File is required only where there is more than one contractor.

• What does the client need to do about Pre-Construction Information?

  Provide it as soon as practicable to every designer and contractor appointed, or being considered for appointment (regulation 4(4) (opens in a new tab)). It is information in the client’s possession, or reasonably obtainable by or on behalf of the client, that is relevant to the work and proportionate to the risks, such as existing drawings, surveys, asbestos information and any existing Health and Safety File. Our Pre-Construction Information Template gives a structure for it.

• Does the client need to approve the Construction Phase Plan?

  No. CDM 2015 requires the client to ensure the plan is drawn up before the construction phase begins: by the contractor where there is only one contractor, or by the Principal Contractor where there is more than one (regulation 4(5)(a) (opens in a new tab)). It does not create a general requirement for the client to approve the plan or the technical methods within it. A client may agree to review the plan as part of its own arrangements, but that is an additional step.

• When does an F10 notification need to be submitted?

  When the project is notifiable: when construction work is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or exceed 500 person-⁠days (regulation 6 (opens in a new tab)). The client must then give notice in writing, normally to HSE using form F10, as soon as practicable before the construction phase begins; someone else may submit it on the client’s behalf. CDM duties apply whether or not a project is notifiable. The F10 Notification Calculator can help check the thresholds.

• What does “reasonable steps” mean under CDM?

  Where a Principal Designer and Principal Contractor are appointed, the client must take reasonable steps to ensure they comply with their relevant duties (regulation 4(6) (opens in a new tab)). Proportionate assurance may come from project meetings, written updates, document reviews, site visits and following up material issues. CDM 2015 does not prescribe a particular method or fixed monitoring frequency, and taking reasonable steps does not mean carrying out the Principal Designer's or Principal Contractor's work for them.

• Do domestic clients have the same CDM duties as commercial clients?

  Not in the same way. A domestic client is having work done on their own home, or a family member’s home, not in connection with a business. Under regulation 7 (opens in a new tab), the client duties in regulations 4(1) to (7) and 6 are carried out by the contractor on a one-contractor project, the Principal Contractor on a multi-contractor project, or the Principal Designer where there is a written agreement for the Principal Designer to fulfil them. The checklist’s domestic-client section records that arrangement; the householder does not carry out the commercial-client checks personally.