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Functions and Duties of Clients and Their Contractors

 Functions and Duties of Clients and Their   Contractors

Anyone hired to perform work but who is not an employee is referred to as a contractor. Employees include those with prior employment history, those with labor-only contracts, and temporary workers. Contractors are employed for a variety of tasks, including construction, demolition, computer work, cleaning, security, and health and safety. At any given time, there may be a number of contractors present. Clients must consider how their actions may affect those of other clients and how they may affect the regular site occupant.


  • their staff
  • additional workers—including contractors—on their property anyone in the general public who might be impacted by their work.
According to health and safety regulations, each party to a contract has specified obligations that cannot be transferred to another party:

  • It is the duty of employers to safeguard employees from harm resulting from workplace actions. This includes the need to prevent harm to on-site contractors and subcontractors.
  • Employees and contractors must exercise caution to avoid putting their own lives in danger or the lives of anyone else who might be harmed by their job.
  • Additionally, contractors are required to abide by the HSW Act and other health and safety laws. The operations of many employers do interact when contractors are engaged. Therefore, teamwork and communication are essential to ensuring that everyone can fulfil their commitments.
  • When it comes to health and safety issues, employees must work with their employer and refrain from doing anything that could endanger them or others.
  • The obligations of each employee must be thoroughly explained to them during training.
  • Self-employed people must not endanger themselves or those who might be harmed by their actions.
  • Chemical, equipment, and machinery suppliers must guarantee the safety of their goods and products and provide details.

  • Determining the dangers to workers and any other potential victims of the site occupier's work, including contractors;
  • Establishing emergency plans;
  • Imparting instruction;
  • Collaborating with others on health and safety issues, such as contractors who use a space that an occupier also uses;
  • Providing health and safety advice to temporary workers, such as contractors.
The majority of contracted work is governed by a binding contract. Therefore, it is crucial that the contract address every aspect of the operation, including qualified personnel, secure access when working at heights, fire safety measures, and proper waste disposal. The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations and the CDM Regulations are based on the concepts of collaboration, coordination, and communication between companies.


Businesses frequently hire contractors for construction projects at some point in order to develop, renovate, or expand real estate as well as to demolish buildings. For all construction projects, the CDM 2015 Regulations are applicable.


  • Clients should ensure that all of their appointees are qualified, make sure the project has appropriate management procedures, allot enough time and resources for each step, and give designers and contractors pre-construction information. Domestic clients are subject to additional regulations (see later in this section);
  • A building's upkeep and use after construction as well as the elimination, reduction, or control of dangers and risks by designers. They ought to divulge details regarding the lingering dangers;
  • Contractors to organise, manage, and keep track of their own work as well as that of their staff; assess the qualifications of all of their hires; train; and inform; adhere to the health and safety on-site requirements outlined in Part 4 of the Regulations and other Regulations such the Work at Height Regulations, and ensuring that there are sufficient welfare facilities for their staff;
  • Everyone, including workers, must: demonstrate their competence; cooperate with others and coordinate work to ensure the health and safety of construction workers and others who may be impacted by the work; report obvious risks; take into account the general principles of prevention in planning or carrying out construction work; and comply with Part 4 of CDM 2015 and other applicable regulations for any work under their control.

The method statements for the project at hand, information on how the contractor will audit and implement its health and safety procedures, details on the contractor's health and safety organisation detailing the responsibilities of individuals, information on the contractor's procedures and standards of safe working, and information on the contractor's policies and practises for incident investigation and learning from them.

Smaller contractors might require some assistance in creating appropriate method statements. They should not be extensive, but they must outline the elements of safe working, such as access arrangements, PPE, chemical risk management, and fire safety measures.

You should ask for copies of any applicable risk assessments for the work you're doing. These need not be in-depth, but they must identify the risk and the appropriate control measures.

Under the CDM 2015 Regulations, the client, principal designer, designer, principal contractor, and other contractors each have distinct responsibilities.


To identify the dangers and risks involved with the design and construction activities, the customer must give designers and contractors particular health and safety information. The information must be located, gathered, and provided in advance so that those who require it can estimate the resources needed to enable the design, planning, and construction work to be properly organised and carried out. This is especially important when preparing a bid for construction work or when planning such work.


The primary health and safety concerns for a specific project must be documented, and the principal contractor must specify how the construction phase will be managed. The organisation and arrangements necessary to control hazards and coordinate the work on site should be described in the health and safety plan. It shouldn't serve as a clearinghouse for exhaustive general risk assessments, recordings of the reasoning behind actions, or exhaustive method declarations. Even so, it might specify when such documents need to be prepared. Contractors and others should be able to grasp it easily, and it should be well-focused, clear, and minimise superfluous information while highlighting important elements. As work proceeds, all pertinent stakeholders must work together to establish and carry out the plan.

The strategy must be customised for the specific project, and illustrations that are pertinent will help to clarify and condense explanations. The programme should be set up so that designers and contractors can quickly access the necessary portions.

The construction phase health and safety plan for the first stage of the construction activity must be prepared before any work is done. Additional information might be added once finished plans become available and building work moves forward.


The customer is required to keep a copy of this record of health and safety information. It informs persons in charge of the building or piece of equipment of the serious health and safety concerns that must be taken into consideration during any usage, construction, maintenance, cleaning, repair, alteration, refurbishment, or demolition activities that will take place later.


This is an official document that outlines the steps to take in order to work safely and maintain your health and safety while doing so. It is the result of the job or operation's risk assessment and the identified control mechanisms. A simple verbal statement may usually be sufficient if the risk is minor.


Construction activity that lasts more than 30 working days, employs more than 20 people at once, or will need more than 500 person-days of work must be reported to the HSE (e.g., 50 people working for 10 days). If there is no construction work on holidays or weekends, those days are not included in the calculation. Following their appointment to the specific project, the customer is responsible for providing the notification as soon as feasible. The warning must be prominently displayed where site workers can see it and updated as needed.


The domestic client's responsibilities must be handled by the contractor, or lead contractor if there is more than one, unless there is a written agreement between the two. The domestic client must choose a principal designer and principal contractor in writing where there are many contractors. The first designer and contractor appointed in each case are taken into consideration to be the major ones when no appointment is made.




Alternatively, feel free to Whatsapp or Call: +91 9445508458

Ms.Divyasree  - HSE Adviser | Aim Vision Safety Training & Consulting

t: 044 42140492

m: 91 9445508458

e: Admin@aimvisionsafety.co.in

286,First Floor,GST Road,

Chromepet, Chennai 600 044 (Above Vodafone Showroom)


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