General duties and principles

Failures in communication more than any other failure in project management will create or exacerbate risks to health and safety and more certainly undermine the considerable efforts in planning and managing construction work. This is supported by the judicial observation of Rose J in his judgment on the Abbeystead case involving an explosion in a waterworks valve house in which 16 persons were killed (TE Eckersley and Others v. Binnie & Partners and Others [1988] CILL 388) in which he said:

Compliance with the CDM Regulations for the purposes of improving health and safety management demands effective communication. Although there is no express general principle or duty to communicate, communication is at the heart of the keystone principles to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate together with express concomitant duties to consult, provide information, display notices, give directions, report and so on.