CDM 2015
CDM 2015 documentation support for contractors
CDM 2015 does not prescribe document formats. It places duties on people, and the records you keep are how you demonstrate you discharged them. Aldbry compiles and cross-checks those records so they are complete, consistent and current, while every duty under the regulations stays exactly where it sits today, with your dutyholders.
The records CDM relies on
What the regulations expect you to be able to show
The documents below are where CDM compliance is evidenced in practice, and where it most often drifts.
01
Pre-construction information
What the client and designers knew and passed on: surveys, asbestos information, ground conditions, services, existing structures and site constraints. It has to reach the people planning the work, in a usable state.
AI does: organise it, check what is missing against the scope, and flag information referenced but not supplied.
02
The construction phase plan
How the work will be managed, kept current as the work changes. A plan written at mobilisation and never revisited is the most common failing, because the site stops matching the document within weeks.
AI does: compile it from your own material, and flag where it no longer matches the RAMS and packs in circulation.
03
Subcontractor RAMS
The method and controls each subcontractor proposes, which the principal contractor must satisfy itself are suitable before work starts. Packs arrive late, in volume, and are read under time pressure.
AI does: cross-check every document in a pack against the others and produce the record of what was checked. See the RAMS review service.
04
The health and safety file
What the next people to work on the structure need to know. Assembled at the end from records created throughout, which is why it is painful: the information exists, scattered.
AI does: assemble and check it against the works actually carried out, rather than the works originally planned.
Where the line is
Duties do not move
This is the part worth being exact about, because it is where suppliers overclaim.
- The principal contractor dutyPlanning, managing and monitoring the construction phase and coordinating it so work is carried out without risks to health and safety. AI prepares and evidences; the duty is held by a person.
- The competent personA legal role held by a human being. No software takes on a CDM 2015 duty, and any supplier claiming otherwise is describing something you should not buy.
- Suitability decisionsWhether a proposed method suits the actual site is a judgement about conditions, sequence and the people doing the work. A document comparison cannot make it.
- Other regimes still applyThe Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, LOLER 1998 and COSHH 2002 sit alongside CDM, each with their own records and their own dutyholders.
Why the record matters
What an investigation asks for
HSE reported in Construction statistics in Great Britain 2025 that 35 construction workers died in 2024/25, and that the construction fatal injury rate is around 4.8 times the all-industry rate. The HSE fee for intervention rate rose to £188 per hour on 1 April 2026. When something goes wrong, the question is what you checked, when, and what you did about what you found.
That is the practical case for records that are complete and consistent rather than merely present. Our article on CDM compliance and AI documentation works through how this applies to the documents themselves.
Common questions
Questions about CDM and AI
Does AI replace a competent person under CDM 2015?
No. A competent person is a legal role held by a human being, and no software takes on a CDM 2015 duty. AI can prepare the information that person needs, check documents against each other, highlight what is missing and record what was reviewed, which makes the judgement faster and better evidenced. The judgement itself, and the accountability for it, does not move. Any supplier telling you otherwise is describing something you should not buy.
What is the best way to manage RAMS compliance?
Review every pack against the other documents in it, not one document at a time, and keep the sign-off with a competent person. Most RAMS problems are relational: an exclusion zone stated as one distance in the method statement and another in the risk assessment, plant named in a lifting plan that no method statement covers, or a control that appears everywhere except the assessment where it matters. Reading each document in isolation cannot find any of that. Corvleo's RAMS Assurance module is live and cross-checks every document in a pack against the others, then a person reviews the findings. You can see it on one of your own packs through the free RAMS pack check.
Is it safe to use AI on RAMS and safety documents?
Yes, provided AI checks and flags while competent people write, review and sign off. AI is good at finding missing sections, inconsistent figures, expired certificates and requirements that have not been addressed, and it does not get tired at the end of a long pack. It is not a competent person and should never be treated as one. Aldbry designs every workflow so that a named person approves the output, and Corvleo presents findings for review rather than issuing decisions. Accountability under CDM 2015, LOLER 1998, COSHH 2002 and your other duties stays exactly where it sits today.
What does CDM 2015 require of a principal contractor when reviewing RAMS?
CDM 2015 requires the principal contractor to plan, manage and monitor the construction phase and to coordinate it so that work is carried out without risks to health and safety, which in practice means satisfying yourself that a subcontractor's proposed method and controls are suitable before work starts. The regulations do not prescribe a review format, so the evidence you keep of having checked is what demonstrates you discharged the duty. AI can compile, compare and flag, and it can produce the record of what was checked. It cannot hold the duty. That stays with the dutyholder, and the review decision stays with your competent person. Our CDM documentation article goes through this in more detail.
Read next
Go deeper
Subcontractor RAMS review
Cross-document checking, with an evidenced review sheet.
CDM compliance and AI documentation
The article this page summarises, in full detail.
RAMS review checklist
Ten steps for reviewing a subcontractor pack, and where the duty sits.
AI for construction
What AI can and cannot do, document by document.
Construction phase plan support
The plan specifically: compiled from your own material and kept current.
Next step
Start with the documents you already have.
Send one subcontractor pack for a free check, or book a short call about the CDM records your projects generate.