Regulation 12: The Health and Safety File
- Paul Scanlon
- Jul 30
- 1 min read
Most clients receive the Health and Safety File at handover, file it, and never think about it again. That is the mistake.
Regulation 12 of CDM 2015 requires a Health and Safety File on every project involving more than one contractor.
The Principal Designer prepares it. The client keeps it.
It records the information anyone will need to carry out future construction, maintenance, cleaning or demolition safely.
Residual risks, structural details, services, hazardous materials — the things that become invisible once the job is finished.
The duty does not end at handover. The client must keep the file available, keep it updated, and pass it on if the building is sold.
This is where it falls apart. Files get archived, lost in a server migration, or never updated when the building changes.
The next project then starts blind — pricing risk that was already documented, or disturbing something no one flagged.
A Health and Safety File you cannot produce is the same as not having one. The duty is to hold it and keep it usable.
Could you locate and produce the Health and Safety File for every building you are responsible for today?
Get your free Client Guide to CDM 2015 here: cdm2015.co.uk/resource-download
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