The Designated Individual (DI) is one of the most misunderstood roles in UK temporary works management. The DI is not simply a senior Temporary Works Coordinator, is not normally responsible for running the project temporary works register, and is not a statutory duty-holder created by the CDM Regulations 2015. Under the current BS 5975 framework, the role sits at organisational level. Its purpose is to ensure that a business has an effective system for controlling temporary works, that competent people are placed into project roles, and that those people have the authority, resources and escalation routes needed to operate the system properly.
Discussion between construction professionals illustrating the corporate and project-level interface between a Designated Individual and Temporary Works Coordinator under BS 5975. Image: London Construction Magazine.
BS 5975 Changed in 2024: Where Does the DI Now Sit?
The previous single-document BS 5975:2019 framework has been replaced by two standards. BS 5975-1:2024 covers management procedures for the control of temporary works, while BS 5975-2:2024 covers falsework design and implementation. BSI confirmed the restructuring when it announced the new temporary works standards. For a Designated Individual, Part 1 is therefore the key management document. Companies that still have procedures, appointment letters or audit forms written around BS 5975:2019 should not simply change the date in the document. Internal clause references, responsibilities and procedural wording need to be checked against the current standard. LCM's wider BS 5975 Compliance: The Complete UK Site Guide examines the broader project-level framework.
What Is a Designated Individual Under BS 5975?
The DI is best understood as the organisation-level owner of the temporary works management system. The role is concerned with governance: establishing suitable procedures, ensuring competent appointments can be made, reviewing whether the system is operating effectively and providing an escalation route when project pressures threaten those controls.
That makes the DI fundamentally different from the Temporary Works Coordinator (TWC). The TWC manages the temporary works process on the project: coordinating the register, designs, checks, interfaces and safety-critical hold points in accordance with the organisation's procedure. A Temporary Works Supervisor (TWS), where appointed, supports that process at site or work-package level.
The DI's authority is therefore systemic rather than day-to-day operational. A DI should not be sitting in a head office remotely signing every Permit to Load or Permit to Strike. The corporate system should instead give the project TWC sufficient authority to refuse progression where temporary works requirements have not been satisfied and provide a clear escalation route if commercial management attempts to override that decision.
Is a Designated Individual a Legal Requirement?
“Designated Individual” is not a statutory title in UK construction legislation. Neither the DI nor TWC job title is created by the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. The Health and Safety Executive's temporary works guidance makes clear that there is no legal requirement to use the job titles or procedures described in BS 5975.
That does not make temporary works management optional. CDM duties remain with the statutory duty holders. Principal Contractors must plan, manage, monitor and coordinate the construction phase, while contractors retain duties for work under their control. Temporary structures must also be managed so that they remain stable and safe.
BS 5975 provides an established industry framework for achieving those outcomes. It does not transfer statutory responsibility away from a Principal Contractor, contractor or designer simply because a DI or TWC has been appointed. LCM has examined that distinction separately in its guide to temporary works compliance under BS 5975 and CDM 2015.
What Authority and Competence Should a DI Have?
A Designated Individual needs more than technical knowledge. The role only works if the person has enough organisational standing to influence how temporary works are managed across the business. In practice, that means understanding temporary works risk sufficiently to challenge weak procedures, assess whether proposed TWCs have suitable capability for their projects, identify resource problems and escalate failures in the management system. The DI also needs access to senior management because a temporary works problem can become a commercial issue very quickly: additional design checking, delayed loading, redesign or extra engineering support may all affect programme and cost.
A DI does not automatically need to be a Chartered Engineer, and completion of a particular training course does not by itself establish competence. Competence should reflect the organisation's temporary works exposure, together with the person's skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour. The same principle applies when assessing a TWC. LCM's analysis of temporary works competence under BS 5975 explains why certificates alone are insufficient.
What Should the DI's Temporary Works System Control?
The DI should focus on whether the organisation's procedure creates a complete control path from identifying temporary works through design, checking, installation, loading, use and eventual unloading or dismantling. The procedure should establish how competent people are selected and appointed, how temporary works are registered, how design briefs and design checks are controlled, how revisions and site changes are managed, and how critical hold points such as Permit to Load and Permit to Unload or Strike are administered. Companies may use additional certificates or permit names, but those are organisational choices rather than evidence that every possible form is prescribed by BS 5975.
Change control is particularly important. Moving a prop, adding debris sheeting to a scaffold, changing an excavation sequence or loading a temporary platform differently may appear minor operationally but can alter the assumptions on which the temporary works design was based. A robust corporate procedure must give the project team a clear route for stopping, reviewing and rechecking such changes before work continues.
How Does the DI Work Across Subcontractors and Large Projects?
Temporary works become more difficult when several organisations operate their own procedures on the same project. A specialist subcontractor may have its own corporate temporary works arrangements and its own TWC, but that does not create an autonomous control system inside the Principal Contractor's site.
The subcontractor's arrangements need to be accepted and coordinated within the Principal Contractor's project system so there is one coherent route for design information, registers, interfaces and hold points. The Principal Contractor cannot contract out its CDM duty to coordinate the construction phase simply because specialist temporary works have been subcontracted. On large projects this may require several TWCs or supervisors covering defined zones or disciplines. The important point is not the number of titles on the organisation chart but whether boundaries, authority and escalation routes are unambiguous.
Can the DI and TWC Be the Same Person?
Small contractors often need proportionate arrangements, and proportionate does not mean paperwork for its own sake. However, combining corporate and project roles requires careful consideration of competence, workload and conflicts of interest.
Where the same senior person is both overseeing the corporate system and making project-level temporary works decisions, there is an obvious governance risk: the person responsible for commercial delivery may also be the person expected to hold the safety-critical line when loading or construction needs to stop. The correct question is therefore not simply whether two job titles can appear against one name. It is whether the organisation can demonstrate suitable competence, independence where required, manageable workload and an effective route for independent challenge. The exact arrangement should be checked against the current licensed version of BS 5975-1:2024 and the project's contractual requirements rather than assumed from a generic template.
The Practical Role of the Designated Individual
The strongest temporary works systems separate corporate governance from project control. The DI establishes and reviews the organisational framework; the TWC manages the project process; supervisors and site teams implement the approved arrangements; and designers remain responsible for their engineering work. A DI therefore adds value not by signing more forms but by making sure the system works when it is under pressure. That means competent appointments, sufficient resources, clear interfaces, effective audits and an escalation route that allows a project TWC to hold a safety-critical position even when programme pressure points in the opposite direction.
BS 5975 is the management framework; it is not a substitute for statutory duties, engineering judgement or competent project control. Understanding that distinction is what turns the Designated Individual from another name on an appointment chart into a meaningful part of temporary works governance.
|
Expert Verification & Authorship: Mihai Chelmus Founder & Editor, London Construction Magazine | Construction Testing & Investigation Specialist |