A plan for health and safety

摘要

Since the introduction of the Construction Design and Management (CDM) Regulations in 1996, the preparation of the Health and Safety (H&S) File, which is supposed to be a responsibility of the fancifully titled planning supervisor, has become a laborious (and often unpaid) duty falling to architects and contractors alike. Theoretically a useful coordination package of information, it more often than not only involves the stapling together of dated and irrelevant paperwork, vacuous documentation from subcontractors (who still don't get it) and the ubiquitous schematic wiring diagrams which bear little relationship to the actual layout, but are included because they bulk it out and look sufficiently technical. Often the most impressive thing about the H&S File is the flash ringbinder with its pastel dividers, albeit of erroneous headings.