APS's ninth National CDM and Student Designer Awards this month

Thursday, October 27th will see the ninth Association for Project Safety’s National CDM and Student Designer Awards. It's being held at London’s Radission Blu Portman Hotel with the awards kicking off at 7pm.

According to APS CEO Lesly McLeod:

"The evening is a marvellous opportunity to celebrate the best of the design and construction health and safety risk management sector as well as a valuable way to highlight the vital importance of health and safety in construction.

Celebrating outstanding contributions aimed at making work in the construction sector safer, the awards showcase innovation and exemplary practice and highlight how this can cut the number of workers who lose their lives or who suffer life-changing injuries or long-term health problems.

There's also great food, fantastic entertainment, and celebrity as well as industry speakers on offer. I believe the Awards strike the right balance between celebrating good practice and providing a sprinkle of star dust so everyone has a wonderful evening."

If you would like to attend, tickets cost £125 +VAT each, or you can book a table for 10 costing £1,125 +VAT. Tickets can be booked on the APS website.

What do the proposed CDM Regulations mean for dutyholders?

The Health and Safety Executive are launching their proposals for the revision of the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations 201x this year. With that in mind, the Association for Project Safety has decided to hold a number of seminars across the UK to inform people working in construction what the CDM changes are.

Anyone is welcome to attend, with the dates and locations as follows:

25th February - South West England
25th February - Yorkshire
25th February - Northern Ireland
26th February - South West England
27th February - London
27th February - East Anglia
4th March - South East England
4th March - Scotland East
4th March - Northern England
5th March - East Midlands
5th March - Scotland North
6th March - South Central England
11th March - North West England
11th March - Wales
12th March - Midlands
12th March - Scotland West

The cost will be £15 per attendee with the programme running as follows:

17:00 Registration, Tea/coffee and sandwiches
17:30 Welcome and introduction
17:40 Presentation of proposed regulations by HSE/other
18:15 Group/workshop discussions of consultation questionnaires
19:00 Summary of responses and collection of written comments from delegates
19:30 Q&A
19:55 Closing remarks from HSE/Chairman

If you are interested in attending please visit the APS website linked to below and click the date you are interested in.
https://www.aps.org.uk/cdm2014-consultation-seminars

APS CEO announces his retirement

We have been contacted by the Association for Project Safety (APS) to inform us that Brian Law, CEO of the association, has decided to retire. Here's the announcement in full:

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the retirement of Brian Law who has been Chief Executive of the Association for Project Safety for 17 years. Brian will be retiring on 30 June 2013 in order to spend more time looking after his father who has been very ill.

The directors of APS have appointed the Board Chairman and President of the Association, Richard Habgood, to act as 'Operational Lead' until such time as a new Chief Executive Officer is appointed.

During Brian's tenure as CEO, APS has grown from a small group of enthusiastic construction professionals to become the UK's leading membership body for those involved in construction health and safety risk management with nearly 6,000 members from across the whole of the United Kingdom.

We are delighted that Brian will continue to be involved with APS, playing an active part in the CDM Regulation consultation process later in the year and we wish him a very happy, enjoyable and well earned retirement.

Here at C&D we wish Brian all the best and that his father recovers quickly.

HSE announce re-write of the CDM Regs at APS event

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced, at an Association for Project Safety (APS) event on 10th May 2012 in London, that they will be re-drafting the Construction (Design & Management) Regulations for reissue in 2014.

The detail of the new regulatory package will not be known until the HSE Board Paper is presented in December. However, the HSE will be taking account of the current under implementation of the EU Temporary Mobile Construction Sites Directive as well as the outcome of the CDM Evaluation, the various Red Tape Challenges and associated Star Chamber reports. The HSE indicated that the new CDM Regulations would be based much more closely on the requirements of the EU TMCS Directive. Additional duties over and above the requirements of the EU Directive will be considered by the HSE provided that they bring tangible benefits to construction health and safety.

The Association for Project Safety, who broke the news to the construction industry, will be highlighting to the HSE where they believe that the existing CDM Regulations can be improved, and the EU Directive better implemented in the UK, without incurring additional burdens upon business and the construction industry.

The forthcoming issue of Digest will have more detail regarding this major issue so look out for it dropping through your letterbox.