The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations, 2013 interprets ‘client’ as a person for whom a project is carried out, in the course or furtherance of a trade, business or undertaking, or who undertakes a project directly in the course or furtherance of such trade, business or undertaking and since 2013 construction work done on your own domestic dwelling e.g. an extension on to your kitchen, or you are building your own house.
What are the duties of a Client?
The Client must, for every project:
- appoint, in writing before design work starts, a competent and adequately resourced project supervisor for the design process (PSDP). In order to be competent, the PSDP must have adequate training, knowledge, experience to carry out the project the PSDP must have adequate resources available to carry out the project in a safe manner;
- appoint, in writing before construction begins, a competent and adequately resourced project supervisor for the construction stage (PSCS). In order to be competent, the PSCS must have adequate training, knowledge, experience and resources:
- be satisfied that each designer and contractor appointed has adequate training, knowledge, experience and resources for the work to be performed;
- co-operate with the project supervisor and supply necessary information;
- keep and make available the safety file for the completed structure. The safety file contains information on the completed structure that will be required for future maintenance or renovation (The client must keep the file in a secure place, either on the premises to which it relates or held centrally, and if the client wishes, it may be stored electronically or on microfiche.);
- provide a copy of the safety and health plan prepared by the PSDP to every person tendering for the project. The safety plan documents show how health and safety on the project will be managed to project completion.
- notify the Authority of the appointment of the PSDP where construction is likely to take more than 500 persons days or 30 working days
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/managing-safely-in-construction/