Principal Design

Since the Building Safety Act 2022 became law in England there are now two defined Principal Designer appointments required by law.

Principal Designer for the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM2015)

and the

Principal Designer for the Building Regulations – Building Safety Act 2022 –England only.

Both of these are crucial and important roles. Find out more below.

Principal Designer – CDM Consultancy

As Principal Designer, we’ll be responsible for overseeing, assessing, and striving to eliminate health and safety risks throughout your project.

The Construction Design and Management Regulations (CDM 2015) are the main set of regulations for managing the health, safety and welfare of construction projects. CDM applies to all building and construction work and includes new build, demolition, refurbishment, extensions, conversions, repair and maintenance.

At MLA we have a robust CDM consultancy offering.

Our team are CDM subject matter experts in construction health and safety and we can assist all CDM duty holders to help plan, manage and develop the effective integration of health and safety into the design and construction process. This encourages an open and effective health and safety project culture.

In addition, our expert consultants can offer foresight to avoid potential design problems. And if introduced at an early stage have the potential to save you money by designing out risk.

Services we provide include: –

• Principal designer
• Advisor to the Principal Designer
• Client CDM Advisor
• Designer/Principal contractor CDM Advisor
• Construction site safety inspections

The Principal Designer’s role is to plan, manage, and monitor the co-ordination of the pre-construction phase.  So, the Principal Designer must understand how health and safety is managed during the design process and be able to communicate effectively with all stakeholders of the project.  Our team’s approach is both pragmatic and proportionate.

We also offer a tailored CDM advisory service to meet individual duty holder’s requirements. Based on their own experience, we ensure that they have comfort that all of their duties are being suitably discharged. Advisory services can be provided for all duty holders including Clients, Principal Designers, Designers, Principal Contractors and Contractors.

Building Regulations Principal Designer (BR-PD)

The Building Safety Act 2022 became law on 1 October 2023 for projects in England. This has changed the responsibilities of Clients and design teams in ensuring building compliance.

Clients are obliged to appoint a qualified person for this role.

As Building Regulation Principal Designers, we have the range of knowledge and experience to demonstrate the competence required to support and assist the design team.

As part of our process, we will set out a plan to achieve design work compliance, monitor and control changes to the plan, co-ordinate designers’ work and communicate with principal contractor and client.

Contact our team manchester@michaellaird.co.uk to find out more.