Questions about project safety records when closing a contractor
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Ask the appropriate project duty-holders and adviser what safety information responsibilities remain before the contractor closes. Begin with the actual project roles and records. Do not assume the company’s trading description tells you which duties it holds or who should receive the information.
This guide prepares that discussion. It does not draft a health and safety file, decide legal roles or approve a project handover.
Identify the framework and the people
For Great Britain, HSE’s CDM 2015 summary describes different roles and their information and coordination duties. HSENI’s CDM 2016 guidance covers Northern Ireland’s framework. State the project location and ask the relevant adviser to confirm the applicable position.
List the roles the business actually holds, supported by the project documents. Where an appointment or responsibility is unclear, identify it as a question. Do not infer that another business has taken it over because it attended the last site meeting.
The live-project map supplies the projects that still need a review. Include work with unfinished information or handover questions even if the main physical tasks have ended.
Send a focused enquiry
Prepare the following for the qualified discussion:
- Project name, location and current stage.
- The business’s recorded roles and the documents supporting them.
- Known client and other duty-holder contacts, with any contact gap.
- Existing project safety information held and who currently controls it.
- Known omissions, unanswered requests or disputed versions.
- Proposed changes to trading, staff availability, systems and premises.
- Questions about the required recipient, continuing responsibility and evidence of handover.
Ask: “Which actions remain with this business, which records are required, who should receive them and what evidence should we retain?” Add any deadline or proposed change that makes the enquiry urgent. Do not invent a date by which duties automatically end.
Record the advice without expanding its scope
Keep the response linked to the facts supplied. If the adviser answers for one project or role, do not treat that as a clearance for every contract. Return with the missing facts where the answer is conditional.
Use the project document index to track the identified records, versions and actual delivery. A completed index row records an administrative outcome; the responsible qualified people must resolve the adequacy and legal questions.
If work or visits continue, check the remaining welfare decision with the site’s responsible parties. Closing the office does not itself explain the requirements for activity still happening on site.
Give UK Auction Group the confirmed practical dependencies affecting equipment availability. Keep sensitive project information and specialist conclusions with their authorised recipients. The disposal discussion needs a clear release position, not an unsupported assertion that every project responsibility has ended.
Sources
This guide is general information and education only. Legal, tax, employment and safety decisions may need a qualified adviser who knows your situation. Read the disclaimer.