A Construction Phase Plan, commonly abbreviated to CPP, is a document required under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, known as CDM 2015. It sets out how health and safety will be managed during the construction phase of a project and must be produced before the construction phase begins. For notifiable projects, those lasting more than thirty working days with more than twenty workers simultaneously on site, or exceeding five hundred person days, the plan must be submitted to the Health and Safety Executive. For smaller domestic projects, the plan is still required but does not need to be notified.
The Construction Phase Plan is the responsibility of the Principal Contractor. Under CDM 2015, the Principal Contractor is the company or individual appointed to manage the construction phase of a project where multiple contractors are involved. For a domestic extension project managed by a single building firm, that firm is the Principal Contractor and must produce and maintain the Construction Phase Plan.
The content of a Construction Phase Plan includes a description of the project and its key contacts, a summary of the significant risks identified for the project, the management arrangements for health and safety including who is responsible for what, the arrangements for coordinating with and controlling subcontractors and their activities, the procedures for dealing with emergencies and first aid, the welfare facilities provided, and the arrangements for induction, training, and communication of health and safety information on site.
For a homeowner commissioning a building project, the Construction Phase Plan provides assurance that the contractor is managing health and safety systematically rather than informally. A professional contractor should be able to show you a site-specific Construction Phase Plan before work starts, not a generic template with minimal project-specific content.
On larger or more complex projects, the Principal Designer also has an important role in gathering pre-construction information and supporting the Principal Contractor in preparing the plan. The pre-construction information pack, which includes information about the site, existing services, ground conditions, and any known hazards, feeds directly into the plan.
RCB Design and Build operates as Principal Contractor on our projects and produces a site-specific Construction Phase Plan for every project. This is part of our commitment to managing health and safety as seriously as we manage quality, programme, and cost.