Form library · Construction and handover
Design risk register template
For designers and people coordinating design risk information. Record design scope, design decisions and communication and closure. Try the form below, see every question or download a blank PDF or Word copy.
Ready to use from the form library, and every question is yours to edit. Trial from £1, cancel any time.
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See it on this phoneEvery question is editable. Add this form to your account, then change the wording, add or remove questions and options, and make it fit your own jobs.
What do CDM designer duties involve?
HSE explains that designers must consider foreseeable risks and eliminate them where possible, then reduce or control those that remain. Relevant information must be communicated to other dutyholders. A register records decisions but does not discharge those duties on its own.
Last updated . Facts checked by the SiteSurvey team on 6 October 2026 against HSE designer duties and HSE CDM 2015 guidance.
Try the design risk register form live
Answer a few questions and watch it adapt. Your answers are not saved, and any photos you add are deleted within the hour.
This is the real form as your team would use it: questions appear as you answer, scores work themselves out and you can add photos and signatures. No sign-up needed.
Want to see one filled in? See a completed design risk register report (PDF), made by SiteSurvey from a fictional site visit.
Fill it in on a phone or tablet
Your team completes the design risk register on site in the SiteSurvey app on iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets. The project name and address fill in for them, it works without signal, and it syncs when the device is back online with photos kept against the question they answer.
Customers and subcontractors do not need the app: send them a link and they can fill it in from any browser.
Every question in the design risk register template
A design risk register linking design decisions, foreseeable lifecycle hazards, elimination options, residual risks, drawings and dutyholder communication. 5 sections and 31 questions. Follow-up questions and guidance appear only when an answer calls for them, so the person on site never sees the ones that do not apply.
Make it your own: every question is editable
This is a starting point, not a fixed form. Once it is in your SiteSurvey account you can reword any question, add or remove questions, sections and answer options, and add your own logo, so it fits the way your team works and the jobs you do.
Details you only enter once
Add this form to a project in SiteSurvey and it fills in what the project already knows, so nobody on site retypes it and every form on the job uses the same names. Anything filled in can still be changed.
- Project: the project name
- Site or premises address: the site address, from the space or the project
- Client or organisation: the project's customer
Record details and scope
- ProjectShort answer
Filled in from the project in SiteSurvey.
Fills in from the project name - Site or premises addressShort answerFills in from the site address, from the space or the project
- Client or organisationShort answerFills in from the project's customer
- Record date*Date
- Person completing the record*Short answer
- CheckThis supports CDM design coordination in Great Britain. It is not a design approval, substitute for engineering judgement or a claim that every hazard has been eliminated.
- CheckHSE explains that designers must consider foreseeable risks and eliminate them where possible, then reduce or control those that remain. Relevant information must be communicated to other dutyholders. A register records decisions but does not discharge those duties on its own.
Design scope
- Design package and stage*Short answer
- Designer and organisation*Short answer
- Drawing or model revision*Short answer
- Principal designer and coordination referenceShort answer
Design decisions
- Design riskRepeat for each design risk. Each one asks:
- Risk ID and design element*Short answer
- Lifecycle phase*Choose one
- Construction
- Use
- Maintenance
- Demolition
- Foreseeable hazard and people affected*Notes
- Elimination options considered and decision*Notes
- Remaining risk and design controls*Notes
- Decision owner*Short answer
- Drawing, specification or model referenceShort answer
Communication and closure
- Significant information issued and recipients*Notes
Communicate the remaining risk in terms the receiving team can use. Reference the relevant design decision and current document.
- Coordination review and dateShort answer
- Open interfaces and decisions requiredNotes
- How design changes trigger reviewNotes
Actions and review
- Are further actions required?*Choose one
- Yes
- No
- Further actionRepeat for each further action. Each one asks:Shown when “Are further actions required?” is “Yes”
- Action and evidence reference*Notes
- Person responsible*Short answer
- Target dateDate
- Action status*Choose one
- Open
- In progress
- Completed
- Completion evidence*NotesShown when “Action status” is “Completed”
- Outstanding limitations and information to pass onNotes
- Record status*Choose one
- Ready for review
- Further work needed
- Work or use stopped
- Reviewed byShort answer
- Review dateDate
- Author signature*Signature
- CheckSigning records the information entered. It does not itself certify legal compliance, remove a limitation or authorise unsafe work.
Scope and responsibility
This supports CDM design coordination in Great Britain. It is not a design approval, substitute for engineering judgement or a claim that every hazard has been eliminated.
What a useful entry looks like
Significant information issued and recipients
Communicate the remaining risk in terms the receiving team can use. Reference the relevant design decision and current document.
Residual maintenance-access risk identified against design decision DR-12. Current drawing and the required handover information are referenced for the receiving team.
Fictional example of record wording. Use the actual evidence and approved arrangements for your job; this is not a completed report or an instruction to carry out the work.
See it filled in
A completed design risk register report, made by SiteSurvey from a fictional site visit: every answer, the photos, the guidance that applied and the sign-off, ready to send as a PDF.
Design Risk Register FAQs
How should I record “Significant information issued and recipients”?
Communicate the remaining risk in terms the receiving team can use. Reference the relevant design decision and current document.
Must every ordinary site hazard be duplicated here?
Focus the register on design decisions and relevant information. It should support useful coordination rather than copy generic site precautions.
Does a low score prove the design is safe?
No automatic risk score is supplied. Record the reasoning, controls and unresolved matters.
Who receives residual-risk information?
Record the relevant dutyholders and the drawings or documents used to communicate it.
What are the limits of this template?
This supports CDM design coordination in Great Britain. It is not a design approval, substitute for engineering judgement or a claim that every hazard has been eliminated.
Can I complete this form on site and share the record?
In the SiteSurvey app the form works offline, with signatures recorded against the questions. Share the completed record as a PDF or a link. Dates and action owners are recorded fields; this form does not send reminders or update other systems.
Related
Related templates
Templates that go with the design risk register form
A construction phase plan record covering the team, programme, site rules, welfare, significant risks, emergency arrangements and revisions.
A pre-construction information register with existing records, site constraints, significant risks, information gaps, recipients and issue revisions.
A CDM health and safety file index with relevant residual risks, document revisions, maintenance information, outstanding items and client handover.
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