UK Offence Report

Contravention of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015

the instrument as a whole of The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015

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 This is the text as originally made; later amendments are not shown here.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 2015.

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
22 January 2015
In force from
6 April 2015
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 revoke and re-enact, with modifications, the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 (S.I. 2007/320) (the “2007 Regulations”). They implement in Great Britain the requirements of Directive 92/57/EEC (OJ No L245, 26.8.92, p6) (“the Directive”) on the implementation of minimum safety and health requirements at temporary or mobile construction sites (eighth individual Directive within the meaning of Article 16(1) of Directive 89/391/EEC), except certain technical requirements in the annexes to the Directive which are implemented by other health and safety regulations relating to specific hazards or circumstances. These include the Work at Height Regulations 2005 (S.I. 2005/735) and the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992 (S.I. 1992/3004). Part 2 sets out the client duties under the Regulations. Part 3 provides for various health and safety duties and roles, namely general duties, the duties of the principal designer, principal contractor, designers and contractors. Part 4 provides the general requirements for all construction sites which remain largely unchanged from the 2007 Regulations. Part 5 sets out general provisions including the requirement for a review of the Regulations by the Secretary of State. The main changes from the 2007 Regulations are— These Regulations apply to all clients of construction projects, whether or not a person is acting in the course or furtherance of a business (regulation 2(1)). Pre-construction archaeological investigations are not included within the scope of the definition of construction work (regulation 2(1)). The role of CDM co-ordinator has been removed and various duties have been recast including client duties (regulation 4) and general duties (regulation 8). A client is required to appoint a principal designer as well as a principal contractor in any project where there is, or it is reasonably foreseeable that there will be, more than one contractor working on the project (regulation 5). Under the 2007 Regulations appointments for similar roles were required for notifiable projects. The duty to notify now lies with a client and the threshold for notification is raised (regulation 6). If a client is a domestic client, most of their duties will be carried out by the contractor, principal contractor, or principal designer (regulation 7). The duties of the principal designer are set out in regulations 11 and 12. Modified duties of the principal contractor are set out in regulation 12 to 14. Modified duties of contractors are set out in regulation 15. Transitional provisions are set out in Schedule 4. The Secretary of State will carry out a review of the Regulations under the provisions of regulation 39. The key changed role in these Regulations from the 2007 Regulations is that of the principal designer. This role fulfils the function of a safety and health coordinator for the project preparation stage as required by article 3.1 of the Directive which was previously carried out by the role of CDM co-ordinator. The principal designer has a more central role in the project than that of a CDM co-ordinator as they must be a designer with control over the pre-construction phase of the project (regulation 5(1)(a)). The pre-construction phase includes all design and preparation work for the construction project (regulation 2(1)). The principal designer is required to coordinate all health and safety matters relating to the pre-construction phase alongside the overall planning, management and monitoring of the pre-construction phase of the project (regulation 11(1)). Schedule 4 provides transitional provisions for existing projects. Where an existing project has a CDM co-ordinator, a principal designer must be appointed within six months of the date these Regulations come into force unless the project ends before that date (paragraph 4 of Schedule 4). During the interim period the existing CDM co-ordinator must fulfil the duties in paragraph 5 of Schedule 4. The principal contractor role fulfils the role of safety and health coordinator for the project execution stage as required by article 3.1 of the Directive. The core duties of the principal contractor have only minor modifications from those imposed under the 2007 Regulations and a principal contractor who has been appointed to an existing project under the 2007 Regulations will be treated as if they had been appointed as a principal contractor under these Regulations (paragraph 8 of Schedule 4). A full impact assessment of the effect that these Regulations will have on the costs of business has been prepared. A copy of this document and the transposition note in relation to the implementation of the Directive have been placed in the Library of each House of Parliament and are annexed to the Explanatory Memorandum which is available alongside these Regulations at www.legislation.gov.uk.

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