An Evaluation of Acceptance on Construction (Design and Management) Regulations in Hong Kong Albert W.K. Kwok and Stephen T.M.

Kwong* Industrial Center The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Hong Kong SAR. *Railway Development Office Highways Department Hong Kong Special Administration Region Government.

1.0 ABSTRACT The Hong Kong construction industry has always had a high accident rate among other industries. In July 1995, the Hong Kong Government had published a Consultation Paper (HK Govt. 1995) on the review of industry safety in Hong Kong, and one of the item of consultation was on implementation of Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) regulations in Hong Kong. By that time, the Education and Manpower Branch of Hong Kong Government concluded that it was too early to introduce similar regulations in Hong Kong before knowing its effectiveness in Europe. In fact, the CDM regulations were introduced in the United Kingdom on 31st March 1995 in compliance with European Directives. The objectives of this regulation are to improve construction safety by enhancing co-ordination and communication among project parties through out all stages of the construction project. In recent survey in United Kingdom, it was revealed that CDM regulations were meeting its objectives. There is little research conducted in Hong Kong with construction professional regarding their view and knowledge on CDM regulations. This paper will outline the results of research conducted with local civil engineers regarding their views and knowledge on CDM regulations.

2.0 INTRODUCTION The primary purpose of the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations is to attempt to improve the safety and health management for the construction industry. This is not because the construction industry has always had high rates of accidents but the construction industry also has an organic or generic organization nature as pointed out by Rowlinson (Rowlinson 1997). The organic or generic organization is referred as there are no firmly set procedures or rules of conduct lay down and no organizations that can react rapidly to changes in the construction site environment. Basically, the formation of the construction team is solely for completion of the construction works. Usually, the client first enters into a contract with the designers to produce the final design of the works, and subsequently contractors are invited to

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tender for the permanent works. Most of the time, the construction contract will go to the lowest tenderer. The client then enters into a contract separately with the contractor, and site staff will be provided by the designer to monitor the works quality and progress during the construction stage. In fact, there are no contractual relationship between the designer and the contractor so that communication and coordination difficulty may arise. In most construction contracts, the contractor is paid in accordance with the work done and bears all the safety responsibility of the project. This payment arrangement gives the contractor no choice but to take a chance with safety procedures when the construction program is behind or when the budget is tight. However, Heinz pointed out that the permanent works design already has inherent potential hazardous during the construction (Heinz 1994). Under contract law, there is no limitation to transfer legal obligations through contract so far if both of the contract parties agreed to the terms and conditions; therefore, statutory control is needed. CDM regulations are designed as part of statutory control to define the safety obligations among project parties, to introduce an additional partyplanning supervisor-for safety administration, and to integrate safety decision at the project design and planning stage.

3.0 BACKGROUND The CDM regulation was enacted under the Health and Safety at Works 1974 Act. The Act was designed to provide, for the first time, safety, health and welfare protection for all people at work (except domestic servants) and also for the people affected by the dangers of works. The Health and Safety at Works Act (Wright 1997) put the occupational health and safety responsibilities back to the employers and the employees as the general duty of employers and employee and introduced criminal liability and reversed the burden of proof from the government to the employer. The Act also created an umbrella Act for delegated legislation enactment such that enactment of delegated regulations like the CDM was no longer needed the British Parliament endorsement, created the Health and Safety Commission (HSC) for research and development of future health and safety legislation, and created the Health and Safety Executives (HSE) for enforcement of all the health and safety regulations. In between May to November 1996, which was 18 months after CDM regulations' were implementation, Construction Industry Research and Information Association (Atkins 1997) engaged a consultant engineering firm to evaluate the results of CDM. The evaluation report revealed that the CDM advantages as follows: health and safety now has a higher profile in the industry, and leading to fewer accidents, improved long-term health, better design management and co-ordination, improved buildablility and planning for construction.

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The CIRIA report also pointed out that the ultimate results of CDM regulations would be clearer in the years ahead because: 1. The apparent costs were still reducing as duty holders would pick up the necessary experience and skill on running project with CDM; Some benefits were not yet measurable because they were not yet feeding through with accident statistic; Some benefits were long term, such as health issues, reduced maintenance and cleaning costs.

2.

3.

Nevertheless, the CIRIA report stressed that the CDM regulations met the aims but it changed the methods of works in the construction industry. 3.1 Review of the Important Issues of CDM regulations The CDM (HSE 1994) regulations can be regarded as the system safety mechanism for the construction industry. The legal duties of different project parties are as follows: The legal duties of client are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Appointment of a planning supervisor to look after all respect of safety matter form start to finish of the project; The designer to take into account safety matter not only at the construction stage but also at repair and maintenance stage; Sufficient resources must be available to undertake the construction task; The contractor must be informed of all the information regarding safety and health; A safety and health file must be prepared and its must be in existence through out the life of structure; and A competent contractor must be selected for the task.

The legal duties of designers are as follows: 1. 2. 3. During the design stage, consideration of safety and health must be given to the construction method, maintenance and repair of the structure; Client must be advised in regard of their duties under the regulation; Full cooperation with the safety supervisor and providing all necessary information in concerned.

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The legal duties of contractors are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Submission of an safety plan for the construction stage and the associated cost; Compliance with the requirements and conditions of the submitted safety plan; Ensuring that the sub-contractors are all following the requirements and conditions of the safety plan; Informing the relevant parties that any changes made on site that may affect the project safety file; and Ensuring that adequate safety training is provided to staff.

The legal duties of safety planning supervisor are as follows: 1. 2. 3. 4. Overall responsibility of the safety and health aspects of the planning stage; Preparation of an safety plan at the operation stage of the project; Monitoring the safety aspect during the design stage; Advise the client on the adequacy of the design and the adequacy of the resource provided for project;

From above, it can be seen that every project party has their own role to play in term of safety in a project. The CDM regulations is actually a statutory solution to solve the generic or organic organization problem of the construction industry, and it also set up requirements for project parties to follow at the planning and design stage.

4.0 RESEARCH FOCUS In 1995, Hong Kong Government had adopted the public consultation approach for CDM legislation instead of the directive approach in the European Union. The Approved Code of Practice of the CDM (HSE, 1995) regulations recommends that the Designer would need to balance the risk of a certain feature of the design against the cost by: 1. 2. 3. Designing to avoid risks to health and safety; Tackling the causes of risks at source; or if this is not possible; and Reducing and controlling the effects of risks by means aimed at protecting anyone at work who might be affected by the risks and so yielding the greatest benefit.

Hence, it is expected that either the civil engineers in the civil engineering industry or the structural engineers in the building industry would need to carry out the necessary risk analysis as a justification for design. It is because they are the professionals who are in control of the design and construction of the temporary and permanent structures in a project.

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As this is a pilot study, it would be more appropriate to start the study with the civil engineering industry. This is because the industry is dominated by civil engineers. Hence, a set of baseline data with a single construction professional could be established. Also, the Hong Kong civil engineering industry accounted for 30% to 20% percent of all the accident cases, depending on the years. By knowing the civil engineers' view, strategy on consultation, open forum and training courses can then be organized to introduce CDM regulations to other construction professionals in Hong Kong.

5.0 METHODOLOGY This study was carried out using a questionnaire with 20 lead statements. The questionnaire was finalized after two rounds of comment from safety advisers from two of the Governments Engineering Works Departments. The questionnaire was basically divided into three parts: the first part was to seek comments on existing Works Bureau Safety Management System, the second part was on the basic concepts of CDM regulations and the last part was on specific requirements for the planning supervisor.

6.0 RESULTS Out of the 200 questionnaires distributed, 42 questionnaires were returned. The results revealed that all the respondents had at least the first degree in Civil Engineering, and only five percent of respondents also had the safety qualification like the membership of Institution of Occupational and Health or enlisted in Registered Safety Officer Register. In average, the respondents have over 10 years of experience and over 95 percent of respondents had professional engineering qualification. Only five percent of the respondents knew about the CDM regulation. The questionnaire survey results can be summarized as follows: Respondents Background and Their View on Works Bureau Safety Management System 1. 95% of the respondents did not know about CDM regulations and without safety qualification; 2. The distribution of the respondents among clients, designers and contractors was 38%, 33% and 29% respectively; 3. 74% of the respondents recognized that there were co-ordination and communication problem on construction safety under the present Work Bureau Safety Management system; 4. All the respondents believed that Works Bureau safety management system should be further improved on a continuous basis; 5. 85% of the respondents recognized that the amount of resources devote to construction safety was not adequate;

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The Basic Requirements of CDM Regulation 6. 95% of the respondents agreed with CDM requirements that safety responsibility should be shared among clients, designers and contractors; 7. All of the respondents agreed that a new profession, planning supervisor, should be created to administrate construction safety starting form the project planning stage; 8. 93% of the respondents confirmed that risk analysis should be carried out at the design stage to eliminate any potential hazard areas of the design; 9. 93% of the respondents agreed that safety plan should be prepared and available to the contractors at the tender stage to highlight all the hazardous areas or operation; 10. 93% of the respondents supported that planning supervisor should also vet the design from the designers and method of construction from the contractors; 11. 90% of the respondents backed to set up safety file to record all the information regarding safety of the project; 12. 93% of the respondents answered that planning supervisor should prepare safety plan at the tender stage and keeps the safety file; 13. 88% of the respondents abetted that principal contractor previous safety record should be taken into account during the contractor selection process; 14. All the respondents agreed that principal contractor should be responsible for implementation of all the safety measures on site; 15. 95% of the respondents favored that principal contractor should regulate subcontractor on their compliance with safety plan requirements; 16. 88% of the respondents answered that planning supervisor should have the power to request client for additional construction time and resource for the project; Specific Requirements of Planning Supervisor 17. 95% of the respondents endorsed that planning supervisor should be individually appointed by the client and should also be an impartial party in the project; 18. 90% of the respondents seconded that planning supervisor should be a professional engineer with construction and safety experience; 19. 90% of the respondents favored that planning supervisor should have graduate academic qualification on safety; and Support for Legislation 20. All of the respondents agreed to support legislation of CDM regulations in Hong Kong;

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7.0 CONCLUSION With 95% of the respondents still did not know about the requirements of CDM regulations, the results of this study could represent a general view of the civil engineers on CDM regulations. Hong Kong civil engineers agreed that the existing Works Bureau Safety Management System should be further improved and most of the engineers agreed on the concept of CDM regulations. The respondents also agreed that the planning supervisor should have academic qualification and experience in construction and safety, and should be impartial from the rest of the project team. However, implementation of CDM regulations would imply to have to restructure the context of professionals of Hong Kong construction industry. Finally, it would be worth to point out that after filling the questionnaire all of the respondents agreed to support CDM legislation. However, it might be because the questionnaire was so constructed with lead statements so that the respondents picked up the concept of CDM regulations as they were filling in the questionnaire. However, most of the respondents still did not know much about CDM regulations before; this view could be interpolated to other construction professionals in Hong Kong. One of the limitations of this pilot survey is the small size of the samples, it is recommended to have a further extensive survey with a bigger sample size to have a better understanding of general views of the local construction professionals in this aspect. Indeed, the possible implications with respective to local situations has to be cautiously investigated. In parallel, a massive introduction program has to be formulated with an agent to introduce CDM regulations to Hong Kong construction industry prior to seek their comments and support on CDM regulations.

8.8 REFERENCES Education and Manpower Branch 1995, Consultation Paper on the Review of Industrial Safety in Hong Kong, Hong Kong Government. Health and Safety Executive 1994, Construction (Design and Management) Regulation, HMSO, England. Health and Safety Executive 1995, Managing Construction for Health and Safety: The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 1994: Approval Code of Practice, HMSO, England. Hinze W. J. 1997, Construction Safety, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, U.S.A. Rowlinson S. 1997, Hong Kong Construction Site Safety Management , Sweet & Maxwell Asia, Hong Kong. Wright F.B. 1997, Law of Health and Safety at Work , Sweet and Maxwell. W.S. Atkins Consultants Ltd. 1997, Experiences of CDM, Construction Industry Research and Information Association, England.

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