Will controversial new construction health and safety rules interfere with the Government's lofty ambitions for the 2012 London Olympics? Workplace Law Magazine takes an in-depth look at the potential for another spanner in the works.

Will controversial new construction health and safety rules interfere with the Government's lofty ambitions for the 2012 London Olympics? Workplace Law Magazine takes an in-depth look at the potential for another spanner in the works.

With thousands of people involved in hundreds of projects across London the burden on those responsible for health and safety at the Olympics is immense – and it's about to increase with the impending CDM Regulations 2007. With the client set to become explicitly responsible for engaging with health and safety issues, how does the Olympic Delivery Authority believe the Regulations will affect its attempts to deliver the Games safely and on time?

Lawrence Waterman, responsible for ensuring the wellbeing of the thousands of people who will construct the infrastructure necessary to deliver the Games, sounds pretty upbeat:

"With the new Regulations, we can say, let's just have access to the [health and safety] information. Using the new approach, CDM Coordinators ensure a good flow of information. They don't have to predigest it, but may highlight any relevant points in a covering note to draw the tendering contractor’s attention to it. It facilitates the health and safety work of the tier two contractor without a whole lot of new bureaucracy."

The CDM Regulations 2007 promise a new perspective on building for the future, with the emphasis shifted firmly in favour of streamlining processes and procedures, limiting bureaucracy and planning well in advance for potential health and safety issues. Clients will be expected to shoulder much more responsibility when it comes to the health and safety of a project.

Raymond Joyce, MD of Joyce Legal comments on the Regulations:

"When you actually start to look at it carefully there are some pretty fundamental shifts. It's not a bit of window dressing; there is some pretty fundamental re-drafting. It is more than clarification. What they’re really doing is not clarification, but redefinition. They are redefining what they want those duties to be."

Contributors from the construction industry, the legal sector, facilities management experts and the Olympic Delivery Authority discuss the impact of the much anticipated regulations in three feature-length articles in the March edition of Workplace Law Magazine:

• Going for gold – Bernie Sheehan investigates how London’s Olympic Delivery Committee will cope with the new CDM Regulations 2007. Will they help London 2012 get off to a flyer or just put another hurdle in the way?
• Clients: Could Do More – Under the new CDM 2007 Regulations the role of the client is changing - but is it really fair to shoehorn clients into this new role? Well, actually, yes, says Katy Brown
• CDM 2007: an FM’s perspective - Patrick Dye examines whether the Regulations will have any real practical effect on the role of the Facilities Manager (FMs)

The March edition of Workplace Law Magazine is available from 27 February 2007. To get your copy call 0870 777 8881 or visit www.workplacelaw.net

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