CDM Note 002

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer AppointmentIntroductionThe part of Network Rail discharging the Client duties, will have to take a key decision whenand who to appoint as the Principal Designer, for a change to the infrastructure. This noteprovides information to help inform that decision taking and activity.This note does not provide detail of the role of the Principal Designer and what their dutiesare, as these are detailed in the following documents; CDM Regulations 2015,CITB Principal Designers GuidanceHSE L153 Guidance on the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations2015.This note and other Network Rail internal guidance is available from: Safety Central – CDM 2015ContentsIntroduction. 11.0Who appoints the Principal Designer? . 2Typical Examples: . 21.11.2How to appoint a Principal Designer? . 21.3Considerations for appointing organisations as PD . 21.4Principal Designer’s Representative . 31.5Who can be appointed as the Principal Designer? . 3Example A: “Turn-Key Design and Build” . 4Example B: Group Strategy – Pre and early GRIP Stages . 5Example C: Renewals projects . 61.6Time changes all . 7Example D: Change from one model to another . 71.6Internal or external appointment? . 81.7Transitional arrangements . 91.7.1For projects ending before 6 October 2015 . 91.7.2For projects ending after 6 October 2015 . 9Appendix A - Principal Designer’s Representative Assessment Template and Guidance . 11Appendix B – Organisational Capability Assessment Guide . 13Appendix C – Project profiler template . 151 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer Appointment1.0Who appoints the Principal Designer?Only the Client can appoint the Principal Designer. If Network Rail does not appoint in writinga Principal Designer, then Network Rail will retain the Principal Designer duties. Dependingon the type of infrastructure change that is happening, then the business unit withaccountability for the appointment of the Principal Designer will change. The PrincipalDesigner is required where it is foreseeable that there will be more than one contractor for aproject. For the vast majority of our works, there will be more than one contractor.1.1Typical Examples:Enhancement ProjectsEarly Stages (Pre-Grip to GRIP 3)Group Strategy is accountable as the ClientGrip 3 onwardsRoute is accountable as the ClientGroup Strategy to appoint / undertakePrincipal Designer dutiesRoute to appoint / undertake PrincipalDesigner dutiesRenewal ProjectsEarly Stages (Pre-Grip to GRIP 3)Grip 3 onwardsRoute is accountable as the ClientRoute remains accountable as the ClientRoute to appoint / undertake PrincipalDesigner dutiesRoute to appoint / undertake PrincipalDesigner duties1.2How to appoint a Principal Designer?Each part of the business should document their procedures for how they appoint a PrincipalDesigner, as suited to their business as usual activities. The Principal Designer appointmentshould be recorded in the following places:1. The contract where it is an external appointment.2. The project remit where it is an internal Network Rail appointment3. The CDM Plan (NR/L2/OHS/0047/F0052) for both internal and externalappointments.1.3Considerations for appointing organisations as PDWhere Network Rail as the Client appoints an organisation (internal or external), the part ofthe business accountable as the Client, will have to assure that who they appoint have therequired “organisational capability”. At the present time, there is not a Principal DesignersLicence scheme or criteria in RISQS (formally Achilles Linkup), so a specific assessment willneed to be undertaken for each appointment. Appendix B of this note provides a template forthe organisational assessment, which has been completed for a fictional company as anexample. This can be used as a guide – it does not set a criteria - the evidence collected willbe organisation specific. The specific assessment will be required for each appointment,2 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer Appointmenteven where it is the same company, however much of the evidence will carry over from oneassessment to another. The key differences will be the individual staff appointed to work onthe project. The completed assessment should be subjected to document control, and beavailable for audit and review. An option might be to include the form in Appendix B in a prequalification tender package for the supplier to complete initially, and then followed-up withmore detailed investigation closer to appointment. The form in Appendix B can also be usedto assess an internal part of Network Rail that you wish to appoint as the Principal Designer.1.4Principal Designer’s RepresentativeWhere a part of Network Rail has been appointed as the Principal Designer, our standardwill require the appointment of a “Principal Designer’s Representative”. The representativerole is a key point of contact for the discharging of the Principal Designer’s duties for thatpart of the business. The accountability and responsibility to appoint the Principal Designer’sRepresentative should be defined by each part of business in their managementarrangements – an accountability of the director for that part of Network Rail.A RACI chart is a good way to show the key tasks and who is responsible for completingthem. Appendix A of this note provides a template and guidance on the competencyrequirements for the Principal Designer’s Representative. In many cases our existing CDMC Representative should be able to fulfil this role, but may need addition support from awider team in performing the design management duties.1.5Who can be appointed as the Principal Designer?For each project, the relationships and scope of each appointment will need to be mappedout. This mapping exercise will help determine who would be best placed to fulfil thePrincipal Designer role to plan, manage and monitor the pre-construction phase. A selectionof simplified examples is provided below to illustrate some of the possible contractualstrategies; there are a near limitless number of variations possible.3 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer AppointmentExample A: “Turn-Key Design and Build”In this example, we can seethat the Client accountability isshared or transferred betweenGroup Strategy and the Routewhere the change is physicallyhappening.The Route in this example hasappointed a Design and BuildContractor (D&B) to perform alldesign and construction works.In this case it would be sensiblefor the Route to alsocontractually appoint the D&Bas the Principal Designer andPrincipal Contractor.The Route has no contractualmeans to plan, manage andmonitor the D&B’s Subcontractors or DesignConsultants, so is not bestplaced to be the PD or PC.A variation on this arrangementcould be where the Routewould “appoint” InfrastructureProjects as the PrincipalDesigner between the Routeand the D&B.4 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer AppointmentExample B: Group Strategy – Pre and early GRIP StagesGroup Strategy for Enhancement projectsand interventions prepare the business casefor the change and may take the project upto GRIP 3. Group Strategy will hold theClient accountability.Group Strategy will need to decide who toappoint as the Principal Designer, or if theywant to retain the role. This will depend onwhat is being designed and to what level ofdetail.In this example, Group Strategy hasappointed Infrastructure Projects toundertake design work and who havecontracted out to external organisations. Itwould be sensible for Infrastructure Projectsin this example to be the Principal Designer,as they are best placed to be a single pointof accountability for planning, managing andmonitoring the design works.A variation on this would be for GroupStrategy to contract directly with an externalorganisation, and either retain the PD role, orappoint a lead designer as PD.5 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer AppointmentExample C: Renewals projectsFor renewals projects, the route will hold theClient accountability.The Route in this example has appointedtheir internal Works Delivery Unit tophysically perform the renewals, who havethen appointed sub-contractors; for examplea plant-hire company with a machineoperator. In this scenario it would beappropriate for the Works Delivery Unit to bethe Principal Contractor as they have controlof the physical works.The Route in the example has retained thePrincipal Designer role, where there is nodesign works being undertaken by the WorksDelivery Unit. This decision will have to betaken what design work is required for theproject, and who is delivering it. Forexample, where a standard design is beingused, then the organisation modifying to thespecific locations will be a designer, andlikely to be best placed to be the PD. Wherea standard design or product is beingimplemented, then Technical Services(formally asset management) would be thedesigner as the owner of the standarddesign.A variation on this example would be forInfrastructure Projects to be substituted forthe Works Delivery Unit.6 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer Appointment1.6Time changes allAs a project moves through the project life-cycle those involved will change, andaccountabilities might transfer. The transfer of the accountabilities will need to bedocumented and the map of the relationships updated as the changes occur. The change inaccountabilities and the organisations appointed should be recorded in the CDM Plan(NR/L2/OHS/0047/F0052).Example D: Change from one model to anotherEarly GRIPLater GRIPCouldChange to7 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015

CDM Note 002:Principal Designer Appointment1.6Internal or external appointment?Fundamentally Network Rail is responsible for the safety of our infrastructure, under otherEuropean railway safety legislation. The “emergency or backstop” position will always bethat Network Rail will discharge the role of the Principal Designer – probably by appointingour Infrastructure Projects function. That however does not mean Network Rail is the mostappropriate organisation to be the Principal Designer in all or most cases. The two largestfactors will be the contracting strategy that defines the contract and information relationshipsbetween the involved organisations – as indicated in section 1.5 – and the level ofengineering safety risk involved in the design.The following factors could be used by the Client when deciding who to appoint. Thedecision will be based around who is in a better position to plan, manage and coordinate thedesign to minimise the health and safety performance in these areas:Against each factor, you might want assess the profile for your project or infrastructurechange, and then write who is best placed between Network Rail and the other choices tosee which one is written the most. The one written the most, is probably the best placed todeal with all the overall collection of risks. A simple template is provided in Appendix C.Other factors for consideration are listed in section 1.7.2.8 PageEmail suggestions for improvement to CDM2015@networkrail.co.ukVersion 1 / March 2015