Buyer’s

Julian Spear, director at Symphotech, has
experienced the incoming CDM regulations
first hand in his professional role spanning
production director and health and safety
consultant. In 2014 / 2015 Julian was also
part of an industry collective which produced
a temporary guidance to CDM regulations
for demountable structures.
What spurred your interest in CDM?
We had worked to CDM standards for several years on certain events and, like any new
legislation, it was open to varied interpretation. With the lack of a guidance document
from the HSE at the time the new regulations came into force it was important that the
industry itself stepped up to the plate to discuss and agree how best to interpret CDM for
clients and suppliers. The document was concise, informative, produced in consultation
with the HSE and was very well received. It is free to download and the PSA are currently
coordinating some updates from what we’ve learned in year one.
What has been your experience of
the introduction of CDM regulations?
I have witnessed a large amount of uncertainty surrounding the terminology of ‘principal
designer’ and ‘principal contractor’. They seem to be confusing people and I don’t think
the HSE should still be using them. Appointing people to these roles is still not happening
properly and I hear simple misconceptions – the Principal Contractor is not the biggest
contractor on site!
CDM is all about an effective management
structure, which I’m all in favour of and a
simpler labelling of roles would help – the
production manager on most event site will be
undertaking these roles.
Enforcement is being phased in very slowly,
so there are still discrepancies as a significant
proportion of event sites have not yet applied
CDM rigorously. In a lot of places suppliers and
clients still aren’t being asked for appropriate
sign-off sheets, so we are seeing a lot of large
demountable structures or pieces of technical
production equipment being installed and
then audiences entering events without any
sign off to say they have been installed as per
the approved plan, which clearly presents a
potentially dangerous situation.
We build in a contingency in our planning
that some things will differ once you get on site, so maybe allow for a small (say a small
variation in the weight of lights / set / video deployed in a stage roof across a festival
weekend). Anything outside of the accepted variation and the principal contractor
(production manager in the real world) responsible will have the information and
jurisdiction to decline that change with evidence.
Do you think CDM will improve safety at events?
Yes, once everyone understands it and gets used to employing the management systems
that create a clear audit trail. In a nutshell something has been designed properly,
checked to be safe, installed properly and then signed off to confirm that installation as
take place as per the approved plan.
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