Designers Consider Responses

The audit report is formally forwarded to the Design Team by the Scheme Manager. The Design Team considers the problems/recommendation raised in the audit report to assess:-

1. whether each problem and recommendation should be accepted and incorporated into the design and the costs of doing so
2. whether the problem should be accepted but an alternative recommendation made
3. whether a problem should be rejected, giving the reasons why.

The design team writes this assessment into a response report/Audit feedback Form and passes it to the Scheme Manager for approval.

The Designer shall consider the Audit Report and prepare an appropriate response to each of the Recommendations. The response shall state clearly whether each recommendation is accepted, rejected, or whether an alternative recommendation is proposed. Copies of this response shall be sent to the Scheme Manager and the Audit Team.

The Audit Team shall then consider the response and indicate whether the response to each recommendation is accepted.

A Completed Report shall contain:

• a completed audit response report / Feedback Form with signatures of all three parties involved: Designer, Audit Team Leader and Scheme Manager
• a signed statement by each Audit Team member confirming team membership and independence from the Designer.

Discussion between the Scheme Manager and the design team should resolve whether the recommendations or the alternatives suggested by the design team, are to be incorporated into the design. If the discussion cannot resolve these issues a meeting with the audit team leader may be required.

Alternatively, the Response Report could be combined at this stage as shown in the DMRB GG 119 Appendix F.  This report still covers the response from the designer covering the same three points:

1. whether each problem and recommendation should be accepted and incorporated into the design and the costs of doing so
2. whether the problem should be accepted but an alternative recommendation made
3. whether a problem should be rejected, giving the reasons why.

A sample Response Report can be found here and to assist, you will find a Response Report Template here.

This is followed by responses from the Project Manager and then in consultation with the designer,  the final RSA Actions to the problems raised are agreed by the client.  This action covers the formal response from the designer, the response from the client and road authority and finally the agreed actions for the scheme outcomes that were raised in the audit.  This combined scenario covers any Exceptions that have been raised as a result of the Designer or Project Manager responses.

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Audit Report Accepted