Health and safety
The safety paperwork
The safety paperwork
that has to exist.
Eight articles on what the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 and RIDDOR require, who holds each duty, and what an inspector asks to see first.
8 articles
Health and safety, in one place.
CDM duties attach by what a firm actually does on a project, not by what its contract calls it. A subcontractor who ends up being the only contractor on site becomes the principal contractor whether or not anybody sends a letter saying so, and the duties that come with it start on the day the work does.
The articles below take one duty or one document each. If you want to check a live project rather than read about it, the CDM checklist works through the same ground in about four minutes and sends nothing anywhere.
Gateway 2, and what it does to a programmeApproval has to be granted before construction starts, and the wait has improved sharply: a median of 22 weeks at June 2026 against 43 a year earlier. What that means if you are not the applicant.Read it →
The certificates that expire without anybody noticingInsurance, cards, plant inspections, training and first aid all run out on different dates, and nothing about your file changes on the day one of them does. What has to watch them.Read it →
When an HSE inspector turns up on siteWhat they can do, what they ask to see and in what order, what a Notification of Contravention means, and what the visit can cost you at £188 an hour.Read it →
RIDDOR, what has to be reported and by whenThree different clocks run on three different categories, and the one firms miss is the fifteen days, which counts from the accident rather than from the day you realised.Read it →When a job becomes notifiable, and who tells the HSETwo thresholds, either of which triggers it, and a duty that sits with the client rather than with you. How to work out whether your job crosses them.Read it →
Which CSCS card, and who actually checks itSeven colours, different qualifications behind each, and a five year clock on most of them. What each card is for, and why it is not a legal requirement but still stops you at the gate.Read it →When you become the principal contractor without being toldThe duty attaches to a role, not to the size of the firm, and a second contractor arriving on site is enough to trigger it. What lands on you, and when.Read it →
RAMS that hold upWhat an inspector is actually looking for in a risk assessment and method statement, and the difference between a document that exists and one that is doing its job.Read it →Other subjects
Site servicesThe three services a site cannot open without, what each one costs to put in, and the compliance estate that sits behind them once it is running.3 articlesGetting paidNine articles on what the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 gives a subcontractor: a right to be paid on a fixed timetable, and remedies for when that timetable is missed.9 articlesCommercialTen articles on the commercial side of a contracting business: what belongs in a price, what routinely gets left out of one, and where the margin goes between winning a job and closing the final account.10 articlesTax and CISSeven articles on the two tax regimes that touch almost every construction payment made in the UK, and the deadlines that carry an automatic penalty when they slip.7 articlesChoosing softwareSeven articles written for the person who has to make the decision rather than the person selling into it, including what the money goes on and where the systems you already run reach their limit.7 articlesWinning workThree articles on the paperwork that decides whether you are allowed to price a job at all, which is a different problem from pricing it well.3 articlesReducing riskThree articles on spotting a main contractor in difficulty early enough to act on it, and on what can still be recovered once it is too late to.3 articles