Principal Contractor ·
What does a principal contractor do under CDM 2015?
The principal contractor runs health and safety through the construction phase. Here is what Regulations 12, 13 and 14 ask of it, and a weekly check you can use on site.
CDM 2015 guides and advice for clients and contractors
Regulation Deep-Dive ·
A PDF with red clouds on it is not a design review record
A marked-up PDF is a picture of a design review, not a record of one. Here is what a review record needs to show.
Duty Holder Explainer ·
CDM 2015 duties explained: who must do what
CDM 2015 gives duties to six parties. Here is what the client, principal designer, designer, principal contractor, contractor and worker must each do, with the regulation number.
Regulation Deep-Dive ·
Changing a detail on site? Under CDM 2015, you may now be the designer
Swapped a lintel or changed a fixing on site? Under CDM 2015 that is design work, and Regulation 9 applies to whoever made the change.
Product news ·
Clarity PC is live
Update, October 2026: Clarity PC is coming soon, not yet open to new customers. It is live. Clarity PC is available from this morning. One connected platform that runs the whole Principal Contractor role — from F10 notification and the Construction Phase Plan, through live daily site controls, to a complete Health and Safety File the day you finish. Sixty-six tracked duties across twelve stages. Every one carrying its own evidence, its responsible person and its sign-off date. Digital sign-in and a live roll call, with one control to evacuate the site and a printed...
Principal Contractor ·
A tick is not evidence
A tick in a box is not evidence. Every compliance spreadsheet ever written will accept one anyway. That is the whole problem with them. Wouldn't it be great if you could: — Stop an item being marked done until the evidence is actually attached — Have the system name what is missing, rather than you finding out later — Make it impossible to quietly tick through a phase Here is a true story from building this software. While setting up a demonstration project, we marked the Construction Phase...
Principal Contractor ·
Nine RAMS and a site to run
Reviewing a subcontractor's RAMS properly takes the best part of an hour. You have nine of them waiting and a site to run. Wouldn't it be great if you could: — Have the first pass done before you open it — Know every one was checked against the same standard, not whoever had the time — Start from a drafted review rather than a blank page Nobody says this out loud, but under programme pressure RAMS get skimmed, signed and filed. Not because anyone is careless. Because a proper review takes an...
Principal Contractor ·
"He has worked for us for years" is not a site induction
"He has worked for us for years" is not a site induction. Regulation 13(4) of CDM 2015 places three duties on the Principal Contractor, and they are easy to read straight past: - Ensure a suitable site induction is provided - Take reasonable steps to prevent access by unauthorised persons - Ensure welfare facilities meeting Schedule 2 are provided throughout the construction phase "Suitable" is doing a great deal of work in the first one. A suitable induction describes that site, on that day....
Principal Contractor ·
Who authorised the hot works?
Hot works started at 2pm on Thursday. Who authorised it, and when does that authorisation run out? On most sites that answer lives on a paper permit, in a folder, in a cabin. Wouldn't it be great if you could: — See every live permit on one register, from anywhere — Have outstanding permits show on the dashboard before anyone asks — Keep the authorisation, the expiry and the close-out attached to the job Permits carry the highest consequence of any paperwork on site. Hot works, confined...
Principal Contractor ·
Which of your RAMS expired last week?
Which of your subcontractors' RAMS expired last week? If that question needs a search through an inbox, the answer is already a problem. Wouldn't it be great if you could: — See received, approved and briefed as three separate states, not one vague tick — Be warned before a method statement expires, rather than after — Link every RAMS to the work package it actually covers "We have their RAMS" is not the same as "we approved it". Approved is not the same as briefed to the operatives doing the...
Principal Contractor ·
Temporary works: who signs your permit to strike?
The permanent works get a design team. The temporary works get whoever is free. Falsework. Formwork. Propping. Excavation support. Façade retention. Scaffolding. None of it appears on the drawings the client signed off. All of it is holding something up while people work underneath. Regulation 19 of CDM 2015 requires all practicable steps to be taken to prevent danger from the collapse of any structure that may become unstable, or is in a temporary state of weakness, because of the work. That...
Principal Contractor ·
The phase that started before it should have
Most site failures are not bad decisions. They are omissions nobody noticed. The construction phase begins because the programme says it begins. Not because anyone confirmed the pre-commencement work was finished. Wouldn't it be great if you could: — Stop the next phase opening until the current one is genuinely complete — See exactly which item is blocking it — Prove, afterwards, that nothing was skipped A checklist in a spreadsheet cannot do that. It gets opened in week one and never again....