News in Brief: December 2013

The government is launching a £200m Sharia law compliant bond to attract investment for UK infrastructure projects. It is understood to be the first Islamic bond issued outside an Islamic country. The Sharia compliant finance industry is estimated to be worth over £600,000m globally.

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Crisis of confidence

The current pace of scale of outsourcing of public sector work outstrips the ability of civil servants to design and manage these complex contracts effectively, says the Institute for Government (IfG).

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Risk guidance from Olympics

The Treasury has published a supplement to its Green Book on how public sector bodies should appraise policies, programmes or projects before committing funds, providing guidance on assessing infrastructure spending, more detail on how project risks should be estimated and on how contingency funds should be managed.

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PBAs for Scottish projects

Project bank accounts (PBAs) are to be trialled on a range of public sector projects in the Scottish transport, health and local government sectors, the Scottish government has confirmed.

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Need to reset ground rules

Public sector construction procurement is in crisis. Stories of procurement foul ups across the public sector have been headline grabbing for years of course, and there have been government responses, such as sending some civil servants off to be better educated in project management.

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Design cover in contract works insurance

Insurance expert John D Wright of JD Risk Associates reviews the design cover available for contract works insurance. Various products offer design insurance, but watch out for restrictions, he warns.

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Rolling the adjudication dice

Thanks to a fairly constant group of appeals against adjudicators’ decisions we have a plethora of guidance from the courts on how adjudicators are allowed to reach their decisions, says Vijay Bange of Trowers & Hamlins.

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Commercial suicide fears are no defence

Ann Levin and Estelle Katsimani of Herbert Smith Freehills analyse an application to appeal an arbitration award in a case where a contractor suspended work because it feared going bust if it proceeded.

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Recovering insolvency losses

Contractor insolvencies may be falling but even in an economic recovery the problems remain. Michael Bennett of Weightmans explains who owns what after a sub-contractor insolvency under the major contract forms.

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When is a collateral warranty a contract?

Most practitioners considered that collateral warranties were outside the scope of adjudication under the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996. James Ladner of Pinsent Masons examines a recent court decision to the contrary.

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