--- title: "PSDP and Design Risk Management" description: "PSDP appointments, preliminary safety and health plans and safety files, under the Construction Regulations 2013." updated: "2026-10-12" url: "https://www.petruf.ie/services/consulting-and-compliance/psdp" --- # PSDP and Design Risk Management > PSDP appointments, preliminary safety and health plans and safety files, under the Construction Regulations 2013. Most building projects need a PSDP: any project with more than one contractor, a particular risk, or a build of more than 30 working days or 500 person days. The client appoints one in writing before design work starts. The PSDP coordinates the designers so that what they draw can be built and maintained safely: hazards identified and designed out where they can be, and what remains written down for the contractor who has to deal with it. We act as PSDP, and as designers we carry the same duties on every job: a design risk assessment with the drawings, and the information the PSDP and the PSCS need. Temporary works, where much of the construction risk sits, are designed in the same office. ## What the role covers ### Coordinating the designers The architect, the engineers and the specialists designing with each other's risks in mind, and directed in writing where they are not. ### Hazard identification Hazards from the design, the programme or the site, eliminated where possible and reduced where not. ### Preliminary safety and health plan Written before tender on any project over 500 person days or 30 working days, or with a particular risk, and given to the client. ### Design risk register The risks each designer leaves behind, with the control measures, carried into the plan. ### Handover to the PSCS The design assumptions and remaining risks passed to the PSCS before construction starts. ### Safety file The record of the finished building that the next person to work on it will need, prepared and given to the client. ## Who does what The Construction Regulations 2013 split safety and health on a project between these roles. One firm can hold more than one of them, but each is appointed in writing. ### Client: The person or company the work is for Appoints competent designers, contractors, a PSDP and a PSCS, and on larger projects notifies the HSA of the PSDP's appointment. ### PSDP: In writing, before design work starts Coordinates the designers, prepares the preliminary safety and health plan, and prepares the safety file. **We act in this role.** ### Designers: Anyone preparing drawings, specifications or calculations Identify the hazards in their design, remove or reduce them, and pass what remains to the PSDP. **We act in this role.** ### PSCS: In writing, before construction starts Develops the safety and health plan, coordinates the contractors on site, and on larger projects notifies the HSA before work starts. ## What you receive Each is a document the next person on the project can use. - The preliminary safety and health plan, ready for tender - A design risk register kept as the design develops - Coordination of the designers, with written directions where they are needed - The design information handed to the PSCS - The safety file, compiled and given to the client at completion ## The questions that come first ### When does a project need a PSDP? Where it involves more than one contractor, a particular risk, or is scheduled to take more than 30 working days or 500 person days. That covers most building projects. The client appoints the PSDP in writing before design work starts. ### Can the architect or the engineer be the PSDP? Yes, and often is. The HSA notes that in many cases the PSDP is a designer with the competence for the role. What matters is the training, knowledge, experience and resources to do it, which the client has to be satisfied of. ### What is a preliminary safety and health plan? The PSDP's written account of how safety and health will be managed on the project, with the hazards the designers could not remove. It is given to the client before tender, the client passes it to everyone tendering, and the PSCS develops it before construction starts. ### What is a safety file? The record of the finished building that anyone maintaining, altering or demolishing it later will need: how it was built, what is hidden, and the risks that remain. The PSDP prepares it and gives it to the client at completion. ### Do I need a PSDP for a house extension? If the work meets the same tests: more than one contractor, a particular risk, or more than 30 working days or 500 person days. A homeowner having work done on their own home has the same duty to appoint, though the preliminary plan can go to the PSCS once appointed rather than to every tenderer. ### What happens if no PSDP is appointed? Every designer on the project has to tell the client that one must be appointed. Until one is, nobody is coordinating the design for safety, and the client is in breach of the Regulations.