What is an F10 notification? It's how you tell the HSE a project is happening.
An F10 is the form used to notify the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) that a construction project is going ahead. Under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015 (CDM), larger projects are notifiable, meaning the HSE has to be told before work starts. It's a notification, not an application: you're informing the HSE the project is happening, not asking for permission to begin. The responsibility for making sure the F10 is submitted sits with the client.
Two thresholds. Hit either one and the project is notifiable.
A construction project is notifiable, and therefore needs an F10, if the work crosses one of two lines. You don't need to hit both. If your project is below both thresholds, no F10 is required, though all your other CDM duties still apply.
The work will last longer than 30 working days and have more than 20 workers on site at the same time at any point during the project. If both are true at once, it's notifiable.
The work will exceed 500 person-days of construction. Person-days are the number of workers multiplied by the number of days they work, so this catches smaller crews on long jobs.
A job with 10 workers over 60 days reaches 600 person-days and is notifiable, even though it never has 20 people on site at once. Projects cross this line more often than clients expect.
The client. Even when someone else does the typing.
Under CDM 2015, the client is responsible for ensuring the F10 is submitted to the HSE as soon as is practicable before the construction phase begins. In practice, the client often delegates the mechanics of the submission to the Principal Designer or another dutyholder, but the legal responsibility to make sure it happens stays with the client. This is one of the duties that quietly catches clients out. Many assume the contractor handles it. The contractor often assumes the client has. The notification then doesn't get made, and the failure is the client's.
Submitting an F10, step by step.
The F10 is submitted online through the HSE's website, using its electronic notification form. Here's what the process looks like and what it asks for.
A missed F10 rarely stays a paperwork miss.
Failing to submit a required F10 is a breach of CDM 2015. On its own it might seem minor, but it's a legal duty, and the HSE treats notification failures as a marker of wider problems. The fix is simple: work out early whether your project is notifiable, and if it is, make sure the F10 goes in before work starts.
Not notifying a notifiable project is a failure of a legal duty, not a missed admin task. The HSE reads it as a sign of how the wider project is being managed.
If something goes wrong on a notifiable project that was never notified, that absence becomes part of the picture in any HSE investigation or enforcement action.
CDM breaches can run to enforcement notices, fines and, in serious cases, prosecution. Getting the notification right is the cheap part.
We act as Principal Designer and handle the F10 as part of the role.
Spectra acts as Principal Designer under CDM 2015 and handles the F10 as part of the role, so it's submitted correctly and on time. Tell us the situation and a named consultant will give you a straight answer about whether your project is notifiable and what your CDM duties are. No script, no obligation.
Get the wider CDM picture.
The F10 is one duty inside a larger framework. These pages put it in context.
Common F10 notification questions
When is an F10 required?
Who submits the F10?
What happens if you don't notify?
Where do I submit an F10?
How do I calculate person-days?
Still not sure whether your project is notifiable?
Tell us the situation and a named consultant will give you a straight answer. Book a free duty-holder call, no script and no obligation. Nationwide, from our Altrincham base.