A PDF with red clouds on it is not a design review record. It is a picture of one.
When a design decision is questioned, after a defect, a claim or an incident, the questions are always the same:
What was raised?
Who raised it, and when?
What was the answer?
Was it closed, and on which revision?
A flattened markup answers the first, partly. The rest live in email threads, meeting minutes and memory.
What CDM 2015 asks for
CDM 2015 asks for more than that. Regulation 11 requires the principal designer to plan, manage, monitor and coordinate health and safety in the pre-construction phase. Regulation 9 requires designers to provide, with the design, enough information for others to comply with their duties.
Neither can be shown from a picture.
On higher-risk buildings, the Building Safety Act raises the bar again: the golden thread expects accurate, findable information about how the building was designed and changed. See the golden thread is a client duty.
A review you cannot reconstruct is a review you cannot prove happened.
A review where every comment is a record
The answer is not more paperwork. It is a review where every comment is a record: numbered, owned, answered, closed and dated.
Could you show the full history of one comment from your last project, from raised to closed? Changes made on site count too: see changing a detail on site.
Free checklist
Our one-page design review checklist lists the ten things every review comment should record. It is free, with no sign-up. More are on our free checklists page.
Clarity Markup keeps every revision cloud, dimension and comment as a separate object, and the whole list exports as a comment schedule for the design team. Seven days free, and no card needed to start.
This article is general information, not legal advice.