© Safetymark
Consultancy Services 2007
Principal Contractor
•On notifiable projects, clients must appoint one
competent, adequately resourced
principal contractor to plan, manage and monitor the construction
•The principal contractor can be an organisation or an
individual
•A principal contractor’s key duty is to co-ordinate and
manage the construction phase
to ensure the health and safety of everybody carrying out construction work, or who is affected by the work.
•There can only be one principal contractor at any one
time.
•To ensure continuity, clients should normally keep the
same principal contractor for
the whole project from site clearance and preparation to final completion. However, there may be exceptions, for example
where:
–preliminary works, for example involving demolition or
site preparation work, where there
is a substantial delay between site clearance and the start of new
construction work;
–separate projects for different clients, for example for
a building shell and subsequent fitting-out
work