What CDM 2015 says
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 require that a construction phase plan (CPP) is drawn up before the construction phase begins — for every construction project, from a domestic kitchen refit to a major build. There is no small-project exemption. On a single-contractor project the contractor writes it; where there is more than one contractor, the principal contractor does.
What the plan must contain
The plan should be proportionate to the job — a small project needs a simple plan, not a lever-arch file. It should set out:
- The project — a description of the work, the programme and key dates, and the project team (client, designers, contractors).
- Management arrangements — who is in charge on site, how the work is supervised, how sub-contractors are coordinated, site induction, and how health and safety is communicated.
- Site rules and welfare — access and security, traffic and pedestrian routes, welfare facilities (a CDM legal requirement from day one), and housekeeping.
- The site-specific risks and controls — particularly the priority risks CDM highlights: work at height, excavations, structural stability, demolition, services (electricity, gas, water), asbestos, and public protection.
- Emergency procedures — first aid, fire and evacuation, and incident reporting.
Notifiable projects
If the work is scheduled to last more than 30 working days with more than 20 workers on site simultaneously, or to exceed 500 person-days, the project is notifiable: the client must notify the HSE (an F10 notification) before work starts. Notification does not change the CPP duty — the plan is required either way — but on notifiable jobs expect it to be examined more closely.
CPP vs RAMS — what is the difference?
They work together, at different altitudes. The CPP is the project-level plan — how the whole construction phase is organised and managed. A RAMS is task-level — the risk assessment and safe sequence for one activity within it. On most sites the principal contractor’s CPP references and collects the trades’ RAMS.
Who gets it wrong, and how
- Domestic jobs with no plan at all — CDM applies to domestic clients too; the duty simply passes to the contractor.
- A borrowed plan that does not match this site’s risks — reviewers and inspectors look for site-specific content.
- Welfare treated as optional — facilities are required from the first day on site.
- The plan never updated — the CPP is a live document; it should change when the programme, the team or the risks change.
- No link to the trades’ RAMS — the plan should show how task-level assessments feed into it.
Running CDM 2015 end to end
The construction phase plan is one stage of a longer statutory thread. The Complly Construct runs that thread for a whole site: the hazard register feeds the pre-construction information, the construction phase plan, the trades’ RAMS, the permits and the health & safety file, with competent-person sign-off gates at each step. Because every document reads from the same record, nothing drifts between stages — and you can follow any single hazard from first disclosure through to the residual warning at handover.
This guide is general information about UK construction health & safety practice, not legal advice. Your duties depend on the project and your role on it. Every document Complly produces is drafted by Rodney and must be reviewed and signed off by a competent person before it is used.