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The equability of environment, social and economic elements becomes a major issue to be achieved as to attain sustainability in the development of a construction project. As to cater to social sustainability, the Guidelines on Occupational Safety and Health in Construction Industry (Management) also known as OSHCIM has been introduced by the government to improve safety practices amongst Malaysia’s construction practitioners. The basic principle adopted in OSHCIM is Prevention through Design (PtD), which enhances the elimination of hazards during project design stages. This concept is inspired from the implementation of Construction (Design and Management) (CDM) Regulations in the United Kingdom. The concept has also been adopted and practised in many developed countries including Australia and Singapore. The aim of this study is to identify the dominant accident causes in Malaysian construction industry. In this study, the secondary data were gathered from the Department of Occupational Safety and Health (DOSH) accident statistics. A content analysis and frequency distribution analysis were adopted to determine causal factors that contribute to the fatality. The findings show the existence of design-related causal factors, which is also incorporated with other causes of accidents. This is true as every accident occurs due to more than one factor. Thus, these inputs will recommend further exploration to determine the design-related causal factors. This may help the industrial players, including stakeholders, practitioners and researchers, to have more focussed efforts and resources in ensuring the success of OSHCIM’s implementation to reduce the accident statistics in Malaysia.

Designers have a key role to play in the Prevention through Design (PtD) practices in construction projects. Nonetheless, previous studies indicated that the issue of competencies to perform and sustain such practices over time is of a significant concern. This study aims to explore the key attributes of designers' competencies for PtD practices in construction.

By using the Scopus database, a total of 86 papers related to PtD in construction published in peer-reviewed journals were reviewed and analysed using the well-established systematic literature review (SLR) methodology.

The review indicates that in order to be competent in PtD implementation, designers need to be equipped with tacit and explicit knowledge, technical and soft skills and experience related to PtD. Furthermore, the review identifies attributes of these competencies. Additionally, a framework that links key PtD elements/principles with the PtD competencies is presented.

The findings would enable contribution to the industry by providing the necessary references for design organisations to improve their designers' PtD competencies and hence, be able to meet their responsibility under relevant occupational safety and health (OSH) legislative framework.

This study extends the PtD literature in the construction context by providing deeper insights into the conceptualisation of relationship between competent designers and PtD elements. The novelty also lies in the consolidation of PtD competency attributes for designers in construction that could act as a reference for any future developments related to PtD competency assessment for designers.