The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016

Principal contractor’s duties to consult and engage with workers

14.  The principal contractor shall—

(a) make and maintain arrangements which will enable the principal contractor and workers engaged in construction work to cooperate effectively in developing, promoting and checking the effectiveness of measures to ensure the health, safety and welfare of the workers;

(b) consult those workers or their representatives in good time on matters connected with the project which may affect their health, safety or welfare, so far as they or their representatives have not been similarly consulted by their employer;

(c) ensure that those workers or their representatives can inspect and take copies of any information which the principal contractor has, or which these Regulations require to be provided to the principal contractor, which relates to the health, safety or welfare of workers at the site, except any information—

(i) the disclosure of which would be against the interests of national security;

(ii) which the principal contractor could not disclose without contravening a prohibition imposed by or under an enactment;

(iii) relating specifically to an individual, unless that individual has consented to its being disclosed;

(iv) the disclosure of which would, for reasons other than its effect on health, safety or welfare at work, cause substantial injury to the principal contractor’s undertaking or, where the information was supplied to the principal contractor by another person, to the undertaking of that other person;

(v) obtained by the principal contractor for the purpose of bringing, prosecuting or defending any legal proceedings.