CDM is money well spent

The Construction (Design and Management) Regulations (CDM) have been with us since 1994, since when they have been revised only once, in 2007. The original Regulations had gone some way towards putting responsibility for safety where it could most effectively be handled, starting with the design, while also ensuring that no one in the supply chain, including clients, could wash their hands of safety.

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Time to move on PFI

Some hopes may have been pinned on a road building led economic recovery getting under way this year, particularly after the Chancellor and the Prime Minister made such encouraging noises around the time of the Budget and as far back as the publication of the National Infrastructure Plan (NIP) in 2010.

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Big guns trained on big cases

Help! We are short of judges in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC). There are only four of them in London and they are dealing with nearly double the number of claims that twice as many judges used to handle seven years ago. The judges have responded by kicking a raft of cases of small value out of the High Court to be dealt with by the county court (see News).

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Civil servants to displace consultants

We never seem to be very far away from a promised procurement shake up in central government, and no sooner is one initiative announced than it seems another is upon us. Against that busy background, however, recent weeks have seen an unusually high level of activity.

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Not the last word on PBAs

It is rare for a government procurement initiative to be so well received as has been the announcement that 20% of government construction spending will be routed through Project Bank Accounts (PBAs) within three years (see News).

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Change but no revolution

The long awaited amendments to the Construction Act came into force in England and Wales on 1 October, with Scotland having to wait a month longer before the new regime took effect.

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PFI must make its case

The government appears to have accepted that the UK needs a continuing investment in its transport, education, healthcare and other infrastructure if it is to be in a position to thrive as a modern economy. Yet the economic background is unfavourable in what looks like being at least a few more years of austerity as deficit reducing policies are followed.

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Bone up on bribery

The new Bribery Act is now in force, since 1 July, and although it was long trumpeted there still seems to be confusion about what it actually means. Backhanders, cash payments in brown envelopes, bungs etc, we can all easily conclude that they are unlawful. But what else might be?

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Constructing a revolution

Bad news for lawyers if the revolution hailed as resulting from implementing the government’s Construction Strategy (see News) comes to pass. No bespoke contracts, it is promised, only standardised contracts to be used throughout the supply chain. Bang goes a lot of workload.

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James highlights flaws

Nobody involved in construction procurement expected anything other than a heavily critical report from the James Review on education capital investment (see News).

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