Project Supervisor Design Process (PSDP) and Project Supervisor Construction Stage (PSCS) are required by Law under The safety Health and Welfare at Work (Construction) regulations.
PSDP is appointed by the client to oversee the coordination of the design with the design team, architects engineers etc.

The client must appoint the project supervisor design process before design work commences. This is to ensure effectiveness in addressing and co-ordinating safety and health matters from the very early stages of a project otherwise expensive changes may have to be made to the Project Design at later stages.

The key responsibilities of the PSDP is to

• Identify and highlight hazards arising from the design or from the technical, organisational, planning or time related aspects of the project to the design team;
• Where possible, eliminate the hazards or reduce the risks;
• Make known necessary control measure, design assumptions or remaining risks to the PSCS so they can be dealt with in the safety and health plan;
• Ensure that the work of designers is coordinated to ensure safety;
• Organise co-operation between designers to eliminate hazards or reduce the risks;
• Prepare a written Health and Safety plan for any project where construction will take more than 500 person days or 30 working days or there is a particular risk and deliver it to the client prior to tender; Anyone tendering for a project must be aware of the Preliminary Health and Safety Plan and any restrictions to the project that may be highlighted in it
• Prepare a safety file for the completed structure and give it to the client;
• Notify the Health and Safety Authority and the client of non-compliance with any written directions issued.

The PSDP may issue directions to designers or contractors or others as required.

The project supervisor design process must be an individual or body corporate ie a limited company In general, this will be a firm of architects, chartered surveyors, consulting engineers or project managers. It can also be the main contractor (e.g. in cases of design and build contracts or small projects with minimal design input). In all cases the person or company undertaking the role must have the necessary competence to carry out the relevant duties. The project supervisor design process must be appointed before design work commences. This is to ensure effectiveness in addressing and co-ordinating safety and health matters from the very early stages of a project.

The role of the project supervisor construction stage is to manage and co-ordinate health and safety matters during the construction stage of any project. The project supervisor (construction stage) is appointed before the construction work begins and remains in that position until all construction work on the project is completed, he will receive Preliminary Health and Safety Plan compiled by the PSDP. During construction he has ultimate responsibility for safety on the project.

The project supervisor appointed for the construction stage must:

• co-ordinate the identification of hazards, the elimination of the hazards or the reduction of risks to safe levels during construction;
• develop the safety and health plan initially prepared by the PSDP before construction commences
  co-ordinate the implementation of the construction regulations by contractors and site workers.
• organise co-operation between contractors and the provision of information.
• co-ordinate the reporting of accidents to the Authority as applicable.
• notify the Authority before construction commences where construction is likely to take more than 500 person days or 30 working days.
• provide relevant information to the site safety representative.
• co-ordinate the routine checking of safe working procedures.
• co-ordinate arrangements to ensure that craft, general construction workers and security workers have a Safety Awareness card, e.g. Safe Pass and a Construction Skills card where required and are working in a safe manner.
• co-ordinate the appointment of a site safety representative where there are more than 20 persons on site.
• appoint a safety adviser where there are more than 100 workers on site.
• notify the Client, PSDP and Design team of any deviations from original Preliminary Health and Safety Plan Compiled by PSDP and stand down work if necessary until issues are resolved.
• provide all necessary safety file information to the PSDP.
• monitor the compliance of contractors and others and take corrective action where necessary.
• notify the Authority and the client of non-compliance with written directions issued.