CDM 2015 Pre-Construction Information: What It Is and Who Provides It

A practical guide for UK site managers, contractors and small builders.

Pre-construction information is the pack of facts about a site and a project that the client gathers and hands to everyone who needs to plan the work safely. Under CDM 2015 it is one of the client's core duties, and it is the raw material designers and contractors use to spot hazards before anyone turns up on site. Get it right and the whole job starts on the front foot. Here is what pre-construction information must contain, who provides it, and how it feeds into the rest of CDM in plain English.

What pre-construction information actually is

Pre-construction information, often shortened to PCI, is information already in the client's possession or reasonably obtainable that is relevant to the health and safety of the construction work. It is not a fresh risk assessment and it is not a construction phase plan. It is the collected knowledge about the site and the project that lets the people doing the design and the building make informed decisions. Think of it as handing over everything you already know that could affect how the work is planned and carried out.

What it must contain

The content is proportionate to the project, but the useful headings are consistent across jobs. A solid pack covers:

• The project: a description of the work, the programme, and any key dates that affect how the work is sequenced.
• Planning and management: the client's arrangements for managing the project, and the health and safety goals for the job.
• The site and existing structures: known hazards such as asbestos, contaminated ground, buried or overhead services, unstable structures, and the condition of any structure being worked on.
• Any existing health and safety file: information from previous CDM work on the same structure that is still relevant.

The point is to flag the things a designer or contractor could not reasonably be expected to know just by looking, so they can design and plan around them rather than discover them the hard way.

Who provides it

Providing pre-construction information is a client duty under CDM 2015. The client pulls it together and provides it, as soon as is practicable, to every designer and contractor who is or may be appointed, including anyone bidding for the work. On projects with a principal designer, the principal designer helps the client assemble and issue it and makes sure it reaches the right people. On a domestic project the client duties, this one included, generally pass to the principal contractor, the contractor or the principal designer, so a domestic client is not usually the one compiling the pack.

When it needs to be ready

Pre-construction information has to be available early, because its whole value is in shaping decisions before they are locked in. It should be provided in good time so designers can use it in their design work and contractors can use it to prepare the construction phase plan. Providing it late, after the design is fixed or after work has started, defeats the purpose and is a common way projects end up managing risks reactively instead of designing them out.

How it feeds into the rest of CDM

Pre-construction information is the input at the front of the CDM chain. Designers use it to eliminate, reduce or control foreseeable risks in their designs. The principal contractor uses it to build the construction phase plan, which sets out how the significant risks will be managed on site. And at the end of a project with more than one contractor, relevant information is carried forward into the health and safety file for whoever works on the structure next. Good pre-construction information in means better design decisions and a sharper construction phase plan out.

What it is not

It is worth being clear about the limits. Pre-construction information is not a hazard hunt the client is expected to invent from scratch, it is what is known or reasonably obtainable. It is not the construction phase plan, which the contractor produces. And it is not a one page tick box, the detail should match the risk, so a simple job gets a short pack and a complex or high risk job gets a fuller one. The test is whether the people planning and doing the work have what they need to do it safely.

Frequently asked questions

This article is general guidance for UK construction and is not legal advice. For requirements specific to your work, check current HSE guidance and your own duty holder obligations under CDM 2015.