UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994

the instrument as a whole of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994

This offence was read from the text as made, and no revised version was available, so a later revocation could not be ruled out. Check the current text at legislation.gov.uk.

What the provision says

Contravening this instrument is an offence under section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. The instrument itself contains no offence-creating words.

Text as made, from legislation.gov.uk. © Crown copyright, reused under the Open Government Licence v3.0. This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.

Who it binds, and what has to be proved

Binds
a person
Conduct
breaching the provision
Fault element
Strict liability
Burden of proof
Not determined

The prosecution must prove that the conduct happened. This is a strict liability offence as drafted: the provision uses no word of intention, knowledge, recklessness or negligence, so there is no need to show that a person meant to do it, knew about it, or was careless.

Intention, knowledge and carelessness are irrelevant to guilt. They may still matter a great deal to sentence.

Classifier’s reasoning: contravention offences of this kind are strict as to the breach; the fault position is governed by the parent Act and was not read from it.

What would breach the instrument as a whole?

These are illustrations, not law. They are generated from the provision’s own words to show the shape of the offence. Whether any particular conduct is caught depends on the full text, on any amendment since, and on the facts.

  1. Doing what the provision prohibits, or failing to do what it requires under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994.

Penalty

Mode of trial
Set by another provision — the instrument states the penalty by reference to an Act or to another regulation
Maximum fine
Not determined
Maximum prison (summary)
Not determined

The instrument does not state a penalty itself. It sets one by reference to section 33(1)(c) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974.

the penalty is in the parent Act, not in this instrument.

No penalty was determined from this instrument. It may be in the enabling Act, or in a general penalties provision this pass did not connect to the offence. Absence of a figure here is not evidence that the offence carries no penalty.

Sentencing

Offences of this kind are usually sentenced under the guidelines below. This is a mapping by subject, not a finding about this provision, and the links go to a search of the Sentencing Council’s own site.

Prosecution figures

No published per-offence figure was found for this provision, and it could not be matched to a Ministry of Justice offence code. Offences created by statutory instrument very largely do not have one. Absence of a figure is not evidence that the offence is unused.

Status and lifecycle

Current status
Status not determined
Made
19 December 1994
In force from
31 March 1995
Extent
Not stated

How this was established: read from the text as made; no revised version available, so later revocation could not be ruled out.

What the instrument is for

(This note is not part of the Regulations) — the explanatory note published with the instrument, © Crown copyright.

These Regulations (“the Regulations”) impose requirements and prohibitions with respect to design and management aspects of “construction work”, defined in regulation 2(1). The Regulations give effect as respects Great Britain (except to the extent specified below) to Council Directive 92/57/EEC on the implementation of minimum safety and health requirements at temporary or mobile construction sites (OJ No. L245, 26.8.92, p.6) (“the Directive”). The Regulations do not give effect to the Directive in the following particulars— sub-paragraphs (a) to (h) and (j) of Article 8 insofar as these particulars are not required by regulation 15 to be included in the health and safety plan; or sub-paragraph (a) of Article 9; or paragraphs 1(a) and 2(a) of Article 10; or insofar as they do not apply to— projects (other than for demolition or dismantling of a structure) in respect of which no more than 4 persons are carrying out construction work at anyone time; and minor construction work in respect of which the Health and Safety Executive (“the Executive”) is not the enforcing authority; and construction work forming part of a project carried out for a domestic client except where regulation 5 applies. The Regulations— permit an agent of a client or another client to declare that he should be treated as the only client in respect of a project (regulation 4); require a developer carrying out a project for a domestic client in specified circumstances to comply with certain requirements specified in regulations 6 and 8 to 12 as if he were the client (regulation 5); require a client to appoint a planning supervisor and a principal contractor in respect of each project (regulation 6); require a planning supervisor to ensure that specified particulars of a notifiable project are notified to the Executive (regulation 7 and Schedule 1); prohibit a person who appoints a planning supervisor or who arranges for a designer to prepare a design or a contractor to carry out or manage construction work from so doing unless he is reasonably satisfied— as to the competence of those so appointed or arranged (regulation 8); and as to the adequacy of the resources allocated or to be allocated for the purposes of performing their respective functions by those so appointed or arranged (regulation 9); prohibit the commencement of the construction phase of a project unless a health and safety plan has been prepared in respect of the project (regulation 10); require a client to ensure that the planning supervisor has been provided with information about the state or condition of specified premises (regulation 11); require a client to ensure that information in a health and safety file is available for the inspection of specified persons (regulation 12); prohibit a designer from preparing a design unless the client for the project is aware of his duties under the Regulations and of the requirements of any practical guidance issued by the Commission (regulation 13(1)); require a designer to ensure that the design he prepares and which is to be used for the purposes of construction work or cleaning work takes into account among design considerations certain specified matters (regulation 13(2)); impose upon a planning supervisor specified duties in respect of— the design of any structure comprised in the project; the co-operation between designers; the giving of adequate advice to specified persons; the preparation, review and necessary amendment of a health and safety file; and the delivery of the health and safety file to the client (regulation 14); impose requirements on planning supervisors and principal contractors relating to the health and safety plan (regulation 15); impose upon a principal contractor specified duties in respect of— co-operation between contractors; compliance with the health and safety plan; the exclusion of unauthorised persons; the display of notices; and the provision of information to the planning supervisor (regulation 16(1)); empower the principal contractor, for certain purposes, to give directions to contractors and to include rules in the health and safety plan (regulation 16(2)); impose requirements on principal contractors with respect to the provision of certain health and safety information to contractors and to the provision of specified information and training to the employees of those contractors (regulation 17); require the principal contractor to ensure that the views and advice of persons at work on the project or their representatives concerning matters relating to their health and safety are received, discussed and co-ordinated (regulation 18); impose requirements on a contractor to co-operate with the principal contractor to enable him to comply with duties imposed upon him by specified legislation (regulation 19(1)); prohibit any person from working on construction work unless he has been provided with specified information (regulation 19(2) to (4)); extend the application of the Regulations to and in relation to certain premises and activities outside Great Britain (regulation 20); provide that the breach of a duty imposed by the Regulations (other than a duty imposed by regulations 10 and 16(1)(c)) does not confer a right of action in civil proceedings (regulation 21); provide that the Executive shall be the enforcing authority for the Regulations (regulation 22); contain transitional provisions in respect of projects in existence when the Regulations come into force (regulation 23 and Schedule 2); provide for— the repeal of certain provisions of the Factories Act 1961; the revocation of certain provisions of the Construction (General Provisions) Regulations 1961 and the whole of the Construction (Notice of Operations and Works) Order 1965; the modification of the Health and Safety (Enforcing Authority) Regulations 1989 (regulation 24).

Read the full note and every offence in this instrument

What Parliament said

Mentions of this instrument in Hansard. Parliamentary material is reused under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0.

How this was identified as an offence

Everything above rests on the judgement that this provision creates a criminal offence, rather than mentioning one. That judgement is made by rule, from the words of the provision, and this is the rule that made it — with a confidence of 0.70.

Basis
the penalty comes from the enabling Act rather than from this instrument
Confidence
0.70 of 1.00

A provision that states a penalty for an offence created elsewhere can read very like one that creates an offence, and the rules can mistake the one for the other. If the text quoted above sets a penalty for something made an offence by another provision, treat the classification on this page with that in mind, and read the instrument.

Check the source