ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to assess how target-setting legislation for ‘risk reduction’, combined with the huge amount of information on risk, can be overwhelming for designers when trying to assess risk on their projects. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 introduced the concept of target-setting legislation with risk reduction – in preference to prescriptively identifying individual issues that cause harm and considering how they could be avoided. The construction design and development (CDM) Regulations however are solely target-setting with a few general examples, which although helpful do not provide a fully comprehensive database of all the issues with which a design team needs to engage. Ideally the designer should try to identify the key CDM issues and challenges on their drawings. This is to enable identification and discussion in a collaborative way at future design team or CDM review meetings, on larger projects.
