The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 apply to every construction project in Great Britain, including domestic ones. This guide sets out the duty holders, when a project is notifiable, what the construction phase plan must contain, and what has to be in the file at handover.
The commonest mistake is assuming the duty sits with somebody else. On a small job the same business is frequently the client's contractor, the principal contractor and the only contractor, which means holding three sets of duties at once.
A project is notifiable to the HSE if construction work is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or exceed 500 person days.
Required on every project, not only notifiable ones, and it must exist before construction work starts. Proportionate to the job: a short document on a small one, and no less real for that.
Required where more than one contractor is involved. It is for whoever maintains, cleans, refurbishes or eventually demolishes the structure, and it is handed to the client at the end.
Schedule 2 welfare is not a nice-to-have and not something to arrange in week two. It must be in place from the moment work starts.
This guide is written for site and commercial staff who need the shape of the regulations, not a definitive statement of them. Read it alongside the HSE's own guidance, and take advice where a duty is contested or a project is unusual.
No software makes you compliant. What it can do is make the evidence findable, current and attributable, so producing it takes minutes rather than a fortnight of searching.