Duties and starting on site — CSCS Card HS&E Test Practice

Sample questions

1. 01You are installing a new distribution board and sub-circuits in an extension being built onto a house. Does CDM 2015 treat this as construction work?

   • AYes, installing fixed electrical services is included
   • BNo, electrical work has its own separate regulations
   • COnly if a principal contractor has been appointed
   • DNo, CDM covers only the building trades, not services

   Why: CDM 2015 defines construction work to include the installation, commissioning, maintenance, repair or removal of electrical services normally fixed within or to a structure. So most electrical installation work is construction work and the CDM duties apply to it. Electrical work has its own regulations as well, but that does not take it out of CDM, and the definition does not depend on whether a principal contractor is appointed.

2. 02You are employed by an electrical contractor and working on a large site run by a principal contractor. Under section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, whose duty is your health, safety and welfare at work?

   • AYour employer’s, wherever you are sent to work
   • BNobody’s, once you have signed in at the site gate
   • CThe client’s, because it owns the site and the building
   • DThe principal contractor’s, instead of your employer

   Why: Section 2(1) of the Act places the duty on every employer for all of their employees at work, so far as is reasonably practicable, and it goes with you to every site. The principal contractor has its own CDM duties for running the site, but these sit alongside your employer’s duty rather than replacing it. The client does not take on your employer’s duty by owning the building.

3. 03Your employer supplies a cable drum stand with a cracked axle and, when told about it, says to keep using it until the job ends. Which part of the employer’s duty under section 2(2) of the 1974 Act is in question?

   • AProviding and maintaining safe plant
   • BGiving every employee a written safety policy
   • CReporting injuries to the enforcing authority
   • DProviding adequate welfare on the site

   Why: Section 2(2)(a) of the Act includes the provision and maintenance of plant and systems of work that are safe and without risks to health, so far as is reasonably practicable. Equipment known to be damaged and kept in use falls short of that. The written policy and welfare are separate parts of section 2, and reporting injuries comes under a different law altogether.