Safety Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006

The Safety, Health & Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2006 were signed on the 28th September 2006.

The Regulations came into operation on 6th November 2006 and replace the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) Regulations 2001 and 2003, except for those regulations dealing with lifting appliances.

The new provisions cover a number of topics ranging from design and management to excavations, explosives and site welfare facilities.

The Regulations provide for general safety provisions such as the requirement for a safe means of access to and exit from the site and the protection of persons present and in the vicinity of the site from risks which may arise from the site.

The Regulations build on design and management requirements introduced in earlier Regulations, and contain detailed provisions for the appointment of Client and Project Supervisors to oversee specified aspects of construction work and projects.

Specific duties under the Regulations are placed on key people within the construction process including the client, the designer, the project supervisors and the contractor.

Compliance with all health and safety regulations is essential for all those involved. Different duties and obligations are imposed depending on whether the construction work is planned to last longer then 30 working days or the volume of work is scheduled to exceed 500 person days.

It is the contractor who is responsible for complying with the bulk of the obligations imposed by the regulations. However, the client must be reasonably satisfied that the contractor has the competence to carry out, or manage, the construction work and has allocated or will allocate adequate resources to comply with all relevant provisions.

Safety advisors must be appointed during construction where more then 100 people are at work on site as an additional safeguard for large and potentially complex projects.

The duties imposed by the Regulations do not apply if the Client commissions or procures a project in relation to their own domestic dwelling, and the project is not for the purpose or furtherance of a trade, business or other undertaking.

To assist with implementation of the Regulations, the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment has published a Regulatory Impact Assessment, which provides a background to the operation of the new Regulations.

For further information please contact:
Eamon Jones at ejones@kilroys.ie

© Kilroys Solicitors November 2006