Supreme Court Overrules Parkwood: Collateral Warranties Are Not Construction Contracts

/ Contractual Issues, Legislation

Blog Authors: AIDAN STEENSMA; MATTHEW TAYLOR; CHRIS HALLAM; STEVEN WILLIAMS – CMS CAMERON MCKENNA NABARRO OLSWANG LLP In a decision issued in July, the Supreme Court has found that collateral warranties and other contracts which are merely derivative or reflective of primary building contracts do not fall within the Construction Act. In addition to overturning the Court of Appeal’s decision on this point, the judgment also overrules an earlier decision by the TCC in 2013 which had found collateral warranties to be capable of falling within…

Enforcement Powers Under the BSA During the In-construction Phase

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Natalie Pilagos – Construction Partner, Wedlake Bell Introduction The construction industry is undergoing a transformative shift with the implementation of the Building Safety Act 2022 (BSA). As part of these reforms, the BSA introduced a regime that seeks to strengthen pre-existing enforcement powers and introduces new enforcement tools. In the Enforcement Policy Statement (EPS) published in December 2023, the Building Safety Regulator (BSR) indicates that enforcement of the BSA, The Building Act 1984 (BA) and associated regulations reflects its overall aim to transform…

Building Safety Act – Are You Ready for 1 October?

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Sarah Elliott – Partner, Wedlake Bell In August 2023, the government finally published the secondary legislation that will bring the design and construction requirements of the higher-risk building (“HRB“) regime under the Building Safety Act 2022 into force, on 1 October 2023. This is the date originally planned by the government for implementation but clearly there is now limited time for those involved in HRB developments, to get to grips with the legal requirements.  The Health & Safety Executive has also published a…

A Consideration of 3 Relevant Construction Matters

/ JCT Young Professionals Group, Legislation

Blog Author: Su Sharma – Skanska UK Last year, the JCT Young Professionals Group (YPG) kindly invited me to speak on three of their chosen topics, Modular Construction – The Future of Construction, Draft Building Safety Bill (as it then was at the time), and PI Insurance: Current Position. This article for JCT News includes those topic areas I covered with the YPG, as a summary for JCT News readers, and to provide an update where applicable on the current situation.   Modular Construction –…

Post-Brexit Procurement Reforms to Take Shape in 2022

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Graeme Young, Partner and Kirsti McKenzie, Associate – CMS On 6 December 2021, the Cabinet Office published its plans for transforming public procurement rules post-Brexit. The plans involve introducing primary legislation to Parliament in the form of the Procurement Bill, which will be further implemented through secondary legislation together with ‘a detailed package of published resources (statutory and non-statutory guidance on the key elements of the regulatory framework, templates, model procedures and case studies)’. These reforms were consulted on over a year ago (the Green Paper was…

Grenfell and the Draft Building Safety Bill

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Michael Haste – Director, Pascall+Watson  Since the tragic Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 we have within the construction industry started to see a number of important developments that will ultimately re-shape our industry for many years to come. These will have far-reaching consequences on many of us but may have limited impact on others, but all should expect to see change of one form or another. Grenfell should never have happened and the fact that it did will remain for many years…

JCT Contracts Meeting the Objectives of the Construction Playbook

/ Legislation, Public Sector

The Construction Playbook HM Government published The Construction Playbook, Government Guidance (Guidance) on sourcing and contracting public works projects and programmes in December 2020. That guidance, although developed through a collaboration of the public and private sectors, is principally concerned with the public sector building and infrastructure programmes. Nevertheless, it also can be applied, in part, to the private sector. The public sector is defined as central government, including arm’s length bodies, which must either comply or explain any divergence from the Guidance. The wider…

Assessing the Draft Building Safety Bill

/ Legislation

Blog Author: Michael O’Connor – Partner, Charles Russell Speechlys LLP Taken with various accompanying measures relating to building safety – such as the Fire Safety Bill currently passing through Parliament, various changes to the Building Regulations and the establishment of funds for the replacement of both ACM and Non-ACM cladding and the cost of waking watches, worth £1.6bn – there is no doubt that the measures comprise the most wide-ranging reforms in building safety for 40 years. Building Safety Regulator Initially confirmed by the Government…

Construction’s New Playbook

/ General, Legislation

Blog Author: Richard Saxon CBE – JCT Chair You may not know that I have been a long-time fan of American Football. The game is sometimes called ‘violent chess’ as it’s based on pre-planned ‘plays’ by one side’s offence team and the other’s defence team. The plays are radioed into the quarterback, the leader of the offence, by a coach on the side-line and the whole team must remember the moves implied by the coded name of the play, then execute it flawlessly. All the…