The principal designer

During the years since the coming into force of the 1994 CDM Regulations, the Health and Safety Executive had been increasingly frustrated at the bureaucracy created by those fulfilling the role of the ‘planning supervisor’, later replaced by the role of the ‘CDM coordinator’ under the 2007 Regulations. Unwittingly the CDM Regulations had spawned a new profession for planning supervisors and, latterly, CDM coordinators. The benefits to the construction industry by introducing these new roles, with their own professional association and training courses, was far from clear. What was beyond dispute was the resultant increased costs for clients but without any evidence that the roles of the planning supervisor and the CDM coordinator contributed to a commensurate improvement in the health and safety record in the construction industry. It was finally conceded that neither the role of the CDM coordinator nor that of the planning supervisor had been as successful as hoped for in contributing to an improvement in health and safety management.