If you are a client procuring construction work, you have an important and influential role to help protect the health and safety of construction workers:

• Appoint competent designers, and where the project is notifiable also appoint a CDM coordinator and a principal contractor. Make sure they understand the health risks that are likely to arise from the construction project.
• Share information about possible health risks on the site (eg asbestos, contaminated land) with designers, the CDM coordinator and the principal contractor. Follow their advice about how to eliminate and control health risks.
• Allow enough time and money for each stage of the project, from concept through to completion.
• Before site work starts, make sure that the principal contractor has made reasonable arrangements to work safely and without risks to health, and carry out periodic checks to confirm that their arrangements are effective.

Above all, you, the client, set the tone for a project. Making sure it is a safe and healthy site sends a positive message about how you want the work to be done.

Further information

• ‘Want construction work done safely? A quick guide for clients on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007’ INDG411 [PDF 166KB]

Useful links

• The Client’s Charter
• Construction Clients’ Group