CSCS CDM Regulations Questions
Construction (Design and Management) Regulations duties.
CDM Regulations — practice questions (untimed, instant feedback)
- 5 questions · pass mark 90%
- Untimed practice — you see the correct answer immediately after each question.
- Some questions need more than one answer — these are clearly marked.
All 5 CDM Regulations questions and answers
These are the same 5 questions as the practice test above, written out with the correct answer and the reasoning behind it. Read them through when you want to revise rather than test yourself.
1. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, which is a duty of the principal contractor?
Answer: Preparing the construction phase plan
- A) Preparing the construction phase plan (correct answer)
- B) Approving the final design
- C) Providing workers' PPE
- D) Running regular site audits
Why: The principal contractor must ensure a suitable construction phase plan is prepared before site set-up.
2. Which document must the principal contractor produce before construction starts?
Answer: The construction phase plan
- A) A site safety policy
- B) The health and safety file
- C) The construction phase plan (correct answer)
- D) A risk assessment matrix
Why: The construction phase plan must be in place before construction begins.
3. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, which is NOT a duty of the principal designer?
Answer: Providing welfare facilities
- A) Managing health and safety risks in the design
- B) Working with the principal contractor
- C) Providing welfare facilities (correct answer)
- D) Making sure the project team cooperates
Why: Welfare facilities are the principal contractor's duty, not the principal designer's.
4. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, what must the client make sure of before construction begins?
Answer: That a construction phase plan is in place
- A) That a risk assessment has been finished
- B) That the council has registered the project
- C) That a construction phase plan is in place (correct answer)
- D) That a temporary works coordinator is appointed
Why: The client must ensure the principal contractor has prepared a construction phase plan before work begins.
5. Under the CDM Regulations 2015, which duty holder prepares the health and safety file?
Answer: The principal designer
- A) The client
- B) The principal contractor
- C) The contractor
- D) The principal designer (correct answer)
Why: The principal designer prepares the health and safety file.
What this topic covers in the CSCS test
The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 set out who is responsible for health and safety on a project, and at which stage. You will not be asked to quote regulation numbers, but you are expected to know the duty holders, the two key documents and which document belongs to whom. CDM applies to all construction work, including work on someone's home, and workers are duty holders in their own right.
- The duty holders: commercial and domestic clients, designers, principal designers, principal contractors, contractors and workers
- When a principal designer and principal contractor must be appointed, and by whom
- The construction phase plan: who draws it up, when, and who checks it exists
- The health and safety file: who prepares it, who updates it, who ends up with it
- Notifiable projects and the F10 notification thresholds
- Welfare, inductions and site security as principal contractor duties
- Workers' own duties to take care, cooperate, report and be consulted
Key facts worth memorising
- More than one contractor is the trigger
- Where a project involves, or is likely to involve, more than one contractor, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing before the construction phase begins.
- Construction phase plan
- The principal contractor draws it up before the site is set up, the sole contractor does it on single contractor projects, and the client must ensure it exists before the construction phase begins.
- Health and safety file
- The principal designer prepares it and keeps it updated, passes it to the principal contractor if their own appointment ends early, and at the end of the project it goes to the client.
- F10 notification thresholds
- A project is notifiable if the construction work is scheduled to last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers working simultaneously at any point, or to exceed 500 person days.
- Who notifies and when
- A commercial client notifies HSE as soon as practicable before the construction phase begins and the notice is displayed in the site office; for a domestic client the contractor or principal contractor does it.
- Workers are duty holders
- Workers must take care of themselves and others, report anything likely to endanger anyone, cooperate with other duty holders, and be consulted on matters affecting their health, safety and welfare.
What people get wrong
The principal designer provides the welfare facilities.
Welfare comes from contractors, with the principal contractor making sure it is there throughout and the client making sure arrangements exist. The principal designer manages health and safety in the pre-construction phase.
CDM only applies to large notifiable projects.
CDM 2015 applies to all construction work. Notification is a separate threshold and telling HSE about a project neither adds nor removes anyone's duties.
The principal contractor writes the health and safety file.
The principal designer prepares it. The principal contractor supplies information for it, and only takes it over if the principal designer's appointment concludes before the project does.
CDM is paperwork for managers and has nothing to do with me.
Workers appear in HSE's own table of CDM duty holders, with duties to take care, cooperate and report, and a right to be consulted.
Answering these questions in the test
Sort the duty holders by phase and these questions become easy. The principal designer owns the pre-construction phase and the health and safety file. The principal contractor owns the construction phase and everything in it: the construction phase plan, inductions, site security, coordinating contractors and welfare. The client appoints both in writing and must satisfy itself the plan and welfare are in place before work starts. Most questions put a document or a facility with the wrong duty holder, so check the phase first.
Sources
Written from the following. Where a figure could not be verified against one of these, it has been left out rather than approximated — our sources and methodology explains how we date and re-check them. Spotted something wrong? Report an error and we will fix it.
- hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/summary.htm
- hse.gov.uk/construction/cdm/2015/index.htm
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/4/made
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/5/made
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/6/made
- legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2015/51/regulation/12/made
- hse.gov.uk/forms/notification/f10.htm
Topics that come up alongside cdm regulations
Ready for the real thing?
When you are scoring 90% or better here, take a timed 50-question mock under exam conditions, then book your CITB HS&E test.