The documents
When is a health and safety file required?
Short answer
A health and safety file is required only for projects involving more than one contractor. On those projects the principal designer must prepare it under regulation 12(5), keep it updated, and pass it to the client at the end of the project. On a single contractor project there is no file duty at all, although keeping useful information about the building is still sensible.
The rule
Regulation 12(5): during the pre-construction phase, the principal designer must prepare a health and safety file appropriate to the characteristics of the project which must contain information relating to the project which is likely to be needed during any subsequent project to ensure the health and safety of any person. HSE guidance adds that the file is only required for projects involving more than one contractor.
That makes the file duty follow the same test as the principal designer appointment itself. No principal designer means no file duty, because both depend on there being more than one contractor.
If the principal designer leaves before the end
Regulation 12(8): the principal designer must pass the file to the principal contractor, who then keeps it reviewed and updated for the rest of the project and passes it to the client at the end. This is exactly what happens where a principal designer appointment is taken only up to start on site.
It is worth knowing before choosing that route, because it means the contractor inherits the file rather than the file simply ceasing to exist.
If a file already exists on the building
Give it to the principal designer at the start. HSE guidance treats an existing health and safety file from earlier construction work as one of the first documents a client should be looking for when gathering pre-construction information, and the new file should take account of it. On a house that has been extended before, the old file often answers a question the survey cannot.
Sources
- CDM 2015, regulation 12: construction phase plan and health and safety file legislation.gov.uk
- CDM 2015, regulation 4: client duties in relation to managing projects legislation.gov.uk
- Managing health and safety in construction, L153 HSE guidance on the Regulations
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