CDM Coordinators: The Role That Was Replaced

The CDM Coordinator no longer exists

The role was created by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2007 and abolished on 6 April 2015, when CDM 2015 replaced them. There is no longer any legal requirement — or legal basis — to appoint one. The role was replaced by the principal designer, and the coordinator’s other functions were redistributed among the client and the principal contractor. This page explains where each duty went, and what to do if your contracts, procedures or templates still refer to a CDM Coordinator.

What the CDM Coordinator was

Under CDM 2007, clients had to appoint a CDM Coordinator on notifiable projects. The coordinator acted as the client’s adviser on construction health and safety: notifying the HSE, coordinating the health and safety aspects of design, gathering pre-construction information, and preparing the health and safety file.

Crucially, the coordinator sat alongside the project team rather than within it. That structural position is what eventually ended the role.

Why it was abolished

The coordinator role attracted sustained criticism for being administrative and detached from the design process itself. In practice many coordinators operated as compliance consultants — producing documentation and reviewing decisions after they had been made, rather than influencing the design while it was still being formed. The paperwork improved; the risk in the design often did not.

CDM 2015 addressed this by moving the responsibility inside the design team. The principal designer must be a designer with control over the pre-construction phase, so health and safety decisions are taken by someone who understands the design and can change it, not by an adviser reviewing it from outside. The regulations also extended CDM to domestic clients and changed the notification threshold.

Where the coordinator’s duties went

If you are working from a pre-2015 document, this is the translation you need. Nothing was deleted — every function still exists, but each now sits with a different dutyholder.

Notifying the HSE (form F10)

Now the client’s duty under regulation 6. The client may ask someone else to submit it on their behalf, but the duty does not transfer. The threshold also changed: longer than 30 working days and more than 20 workers simultaneously at any point, or exceeding 500 person days.

Coordinating health and safety in design

Now the principal designer’s duty. Required on any project with more than one contractor — and note that this trigger is nothing to do with notification. A short project with two contractors needs a principal designer; a long single-contractor project does not.

Gathering and issuing pre-construction information

Now the client’s duty, assisted by the principal designer. The client must provide what it knows or could reasonably obtain about the site and project; the principal designer helps assemble it and gets it to the designers and contractors who need it.

Preparing the health and safety file

Now the principal designer’s duty, handed to the client at the end of the project. Required only where there is more than one contractor. If the principal designer’s appointment ends before the project does, the file passes to the principal contractor to complete.

The construction phase plan

Drawn up by the principal contractor — or by the contractor where there is only one. There is no longer any coordinator reviewing it for adequacy. The client must ensure it exists before the construction phase begins, and every project needs one without exception.

Welfare arrangements

The client must ensure welfare facilities meeting Schedule 2 are provided, and the principal contractor must ensure they are in place and maintained throughout. No third party signs this off.

Advising the client on their own duties

This one has no statutory successor, and it is the gap that catches clients out. Under CDM 2015 the client carries its duties directly, with no appointed adviser built into the regulations. Clients who want that support now buy it commercially as a CDM client adviser — a real and useful service, but not a dutyholder role.

If your documents still say “CDM Coordinator”

Legacy wording is common in framework agreements, standard-form appointments, procurement templates and internal procedures written before 2015. It matters, because a contract that requires an appointment which no longer exists in law creates ambiguity about who is actually doing the work.

  • Contracts and appointments. Check what the clause actually obliges. If it requires appointment of a CDM Coordinator, it needs replacing with a principal designer appointment, made in writing by the client.
  • Pre-qualification questionnaires. Asking suppliers for CDM Coordinator credentials signals that your own arrangements have not been reviewed for over a decade.
  • Internal procedures and templates. Any process still routing notification, the file or design coordination through a coordinator is routing it to nobody.
  • Suppliers still offering the service. If a consultancy is marketing CDM Coordinator services in 2026, ask what they are actually providing and under what regulation. It may be a perfectly good advisory service with an out-of-date label — or it may not.

Free F10 Notification Checker

Work out where your project stands under the current rules. Our free checker applies the CDM 2015 Regulation 6 test, tells you whether the project must be notified to the HSE and why, shows who must be appointed in writing and on what trigger, and lists the documents the project needs. Printable record at the end, no signup.

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Frequently asked questions

Do I still need to appoint a CDM Coordinator?

No. The role was abolished in April 2015 and there is no legal basis for the appointment. What you may need is a principal designer, which is required on any project involving more than one contractor and must be appointed in writing by the client.

Is the principal designer just a renamed CDM Coordinator?

No, and treating it as one is the most common mistake. The coordinator advised from outside the design team; the principal designer must be a designer with control over the pre-construction phase, working inside it. The principal designer also has fewer duties overall — several of the coordinator’s functions went to the client and the principal contractor rather than transferring across.

Our former CDM Coordinator still advises us. Is that a problem?

Not in itself — many former coordinators moved into legitimate advisory work and bring real expertise. The problem arises only if the arrangement is described as a principal designer appointment when the adviser is not a designer with control of the pre-construction phase. In that case the statutory duty has not been discharged, and it still sits with you.

Are CDM Coordinator qualifications still worth anything?

The knowledge largely transfers — design risk management, pre-construction information, the health and safety file — but the certificate names a role that no longer exists, and CDM 2015 changed enough to warrant updating. Anyone still holding coordinator-era training should refresh it against the current regulations.

CDM Training

Training built around the current regulations rather than the 2007 framework:

Related Content

Envico is an independent training intermediary. We list training courses delivered by accredited providers — we do not provide CDM consultancy or advisory services. This page is general information about a historical role and the regulations that replaced it, not legal advice.