Who is a ‘Designer’?
Under the regulations, you are a designer if you are engaged in preparing drawings, particulars, specifications, calculations and bills of quantities in relation to a project. The term “designer” means a person engaged in work related to the design of a project;
The term designer would include:
- architects and engineers contributing to, or having overall responsibility for the design
- building services engineers designing details of fixed plant
- surveyors specifying articles or substances or drawing up specifications
- contractors carrying out design work as part of a design and build project
- anyone with authority to specify, or alter the specification or designs to be used for the structure
- designers of temporary works or specialist suppliers designing form work and false work
- interior designers, shop fitters and landscape architects; and
- specialist suppliers, specialist contractors or sub-contractors with design input
What are the duties of Designers?
The duties of designers are in addition to those under Section 16 of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Construction Regulations 2013 which requires designers to ensure that the project is capable to being constructed to be safe, can be maintained safely and complies with all relevant health and safety legislation.
Designers must:
- further develop, as necessary, before the commencement of the construction work, the safety and health plan for the construction site prepared under Regulation 12, in this Regulation called “the plan”,
- make adjustments to the plan where required to take account of the progress of the work and any changes which occur,
- take account as regards the plan, at all times during the construction stage, of section 20 of the Act and of other work activities taking place on the site,
- include in the plan specific measures concerning work which involves a particular risk, including but not limited to any risk referred to in Schedule 1,
- include in the plan, rules for the execution of the construction work which rules are required for the purposes of the safety, health and welfare of persons at work, and
- ensure that the plan and any rules contained in it are in writing and that they are brought to the attention of all contractors and other relevant persons who may be affected by them.
The correct selection of employees and specific training programs are significant hurdles to achieving workplace safety. We invite you to learn how CIF Learning & Development can help protect your business and your employees by visiting https://ciftraining.ie/product/project-supervisor-design-process/