Contractor Duties

A contractor is anyone who directly employs or engages construction workers or manages construction work. Contractors include sub-contractors, any individual self-employed worker or business that carries out, manages or controls construction work.  They must have the skills, knowledge, experience and, where relevant, the organisational capability to carry out the work safely and without risk to health.

Contractors and the workers under their control are most at risk of injury and ill health from construction work. Contractors therefore have an important role in planning, managing and monitoring their work to ensure any risks are controlled.

General Duties

• A Contractor MUST have the Skills, Knowledge and Training & Experience (SKATE) to take on the role
• If the Contractor appoints any other Designers or Contractors – Make sure they have the necessary SKATE
• Co-operate with everyone involved in the project and make sure everyone under their control co-operates with each other
• Report any Health & Safety issues that they become aware of to whom they are working for
• When providing information or instruction – make sure it is comprehensible and provided in good time

Specific Duties

The Contractor must

• Ensure that the Client is aware of their duties – if not they must not start
• Plan, manage and monitor construction work including that of others under their control
• Comply with the direction of the Principal Contractor and/or Principal Designer when applicable
• Comply with the Construction Phase Plan
• If they are the only contractor they must take account of the General Principles of Prevention when
• Deciding design, technical and organisational aspects of the work
• Estimating the time required for the work
• Prepare a Construction Phase Plan BEFORE work starts on-site (when they are the only contractor on a project)
• Provide each worker with supervision, instruction and information including a site induction (if there is no principal contractor induction)
• Prevent unauthorised access to the site
• Provide (where not provided by a Principal Contractor) welfare facilities to comply with Schedule 2.

Note - This page is for guidance only. Application on a project must comply with the official HSE issue of the Regulations