Newsletter
Information for members
March 2002

Previous issue: February 2002
Next issue: May 2002

Programme

A reminder that the general evening meetings are free of charge to members and guests and that no booking is necessary

SCL Consultant

Following the job advertisement e-mailed to members and included in our newsletter last autumn, an interviewing panel interviewed a number of the applicants earlier this year and we are delighted to report that Robert Knutson has now been appointed as SCL Consultant. This position is a temporary appointment, to be reviewed at the end of six months, during which time Robert will be spending an average of one day a week on SCL activities. In addition to this role, Robert has also been appointed SCL Consultant to assist in the planning and organisation of the joint SCL/SCA/ESCL Conference to be held on 12 July (see above).

Robert may be contacted by e-mail on robertknutson@tinyworld.co.uk

SCL Members Directory

You will be receiving under separate cover your copy of the Members Directory 2002. As soon as you take it out of the envelope could you please quickly check your entry? Please advise the Admin office (contact details at the foot of this page) of any errors and add any missing information.

Keeping track of over 1,200 members is not easy, so your help in keeping the Directory accurate and complete will be much appreciated! Thank you.

Annual Dinner at Middle Temple Hall Wednesday, 15th May

Enclosed with this newsletter is your copy of the flier giving details of the Annual Dinner at Middle Temple Hall, plus booking form. Please note that the Society's annual dinner is the one event of the year for paid members only. No guests (other than the honorary guests) are allowed to attend..

Would you like to stand for Council?

You should already have received information from the Chairman giving details of this year's elections to Council.

Paul Darling QC, John Burgess and Ken Hughes have decided to stand down. John was elected an honorary member of the Society last year and is now precluded by the Society's constitution from continuing as an ordinary member of Council, although he is entitled to be co-opted in the future; Ken and Paul are retiring from Council due to their current business commitments. Helen Garthwaite, Peter Higgins, Nigel Jones QC and Fenella Mason will all be standing down but will be seeking re-election.

There are thus seven vacant places on Council and four existing members seeking re election.

If you would like to stand for election to Council, please contact Jackie Morris on admin@scl.org.uk by Friday, 12th April to let her know. If you do decide to stand, the procedure is as follows:-

1. You must be a paid up member of the Society.
2. You must be nominated and seconded by paid up members of the Society.
3. You must provide the following information:-
     (a) Your name
     (b) Your work/practice address
     (c) Your professional qualifications, if any
     (d) The names of your proposer and seconder
     (e) The date you joined the Society
4. You must also provide an election statement, not exceeding 100 words.

If you would like to know more about the work of the Council before deciding whether or not to stand, please contact Victoria Russell on (020) 7956-9354 or vrussell@fenwickelliott.co.uk or any other officers of the Society, who will be happy to give you further information.

Protocol for Determining Extensions of Time and
Compensation for Delay and Disruption

The consultation period for the draft Protocol ended on 28th February 2002. Over 6000 copies of the draft Protocol have been circulated to date. More than 5000 people visited the website on www.eotprotocol.com, with downloads occurring at more than 100 per day. The Protocol has been made the subject of several seminars. Interest has been generated not only in the UK, but in places as far afield as Pakistan, South Africa, Hong Kong and Australia.

The number of detailed submissions received during the consultation period amounted to nearly 80. A similar number of comments was made at the website Bulletin Board. A brief summary of the comments received is as follows:

In general a large majority of the consultation contributors were supportive of the Protocol and made comments with the aim of improving the document. However, some UK industry bodies, such as RIBA and CIC, expressed concern that the Protocol might not in fact achieve its objective of reducing disputes over delay. Some suggested a second round of consultation to secure a wider acceptance of the Protocol.

Several contributors thought that the Protocol lacked certainty in its relationship with contracts and case law, and should be published simply as a set of Guidance Notes. The Protocol was also considered by some to be too prescriptive in its requirements concerning the form the programme should take and in its methods of analysing extensions of time. Others thought that the Protocol could be structured to suit different sized projects, it being perceived as being aimed at only the large complex projects.

Many of the contributors who are or represented contractors said that the Protocol's allocation of float to the project was wrong, as in their opinion float was a risk contingency for the contractor's sole use. They also thought that the Protocol should give more credence to global claims, constructive acceleration and use of tender allowances. The Protocol's recommendation to use adjudication to resolve disputes about extensions of time was questioned.

The Society considered the comments received at its last Council meeting and agreed that the Protocol should be finalised and published at the appropriate time. It is now planned to publish a re-draft of the Protocol in early May to take account of the comments received to date. A consultation workshop will then be held, to be attended by SCL representatives, those who have commented on the Protocol and other invited delegates. The date of this workshop has been fixed for the afternoon of Wednesday 22nd May 2002 at the ICE in London and we are honoured that Judge Humphrey Lloyd QC has agreed to act as Chair of the workshop.

If you are interested in attending this workshop then please complete the application form at the website: www.eotprotocol.com. Places for the workshop will be limited and priority will be given to those who have contributed to the drafting or consultation process.

Following the workshop, it is planned that the Protocol will be finalised and launched at a seminar in July. More details about the launch events will be publicised when the arrangements have been finalised.

CIC Professional Services Survey - Volunteer Required!

The Construction Industry Council has commenced a collaborative professional services survey with DTI. Objectives of the survey are to determine the value of UK construction professionals services, and to provide a meaningful breakdown by sector. The first survey was carried out in 1996 and involved 15,000 professional services firms (with a response form around 800 firms). The survey demonstrated that firms earned a total of £6.7 billion from the UK and overseas. A small number of large firms earn the majority of UK fee income, and over two thirds of all firms earned less than 10% of UK fee income.

Approximately 45% of the income was produced in London and the South East, and those regions were also responsible for the majority of fees earned overseas.

In respect of the forthcoming survey, the CIC's aim is to improve the response rate. They have therefore contacted a wide range of professional organisations, including SCL. CIC is seeking to work with each of the organisations in order to identify members that could be surveyed, and also to ensure that the results are relevant to the professional bodies.

The second workshop for the project is set to take place on Tuesday, 26th March from 10.00am to 1.00pm at the Building Centre, 26 Stall Street. SCL is seeking a volunteer with an interest in these areas who can attend the next meeting. Please contact Nicholas Gould on 020 7956 9354 or ngould@fenwickelliott.co.uk for details.

Change the Face of International Turnkey Contracts

The ICC Commission on International Commercial Practices, based in Paris, is currently working on a draft of a new Major Projects Turnkey contract for international construction. The mandate of the group is to create a contract which, like all ICC Model Contracts, is fair to all parties. If you are interested in taking part (at yours or your firm's expense!) contact Robert Knutson through the SCL.

Presentation of the SCL Hudson Prize papers Monday, 9th April

Council hopes that a good audience of members and guests will attend the National Liberal Club to hear the presentations by the winners, which are on topics of great interest (see programme above). This is especially so as two of the speakers will have travelled many thousands of miles to give them. Free drinks will be served before and after the talks.

SCL Book Grants

In our last Newsletter we reported that a grant of £1004 had been made to Glasgow Caledonian University to purchase construction law books. Further applications for grants have been received since then and the Society has awarded the following grants.

£900 to King's College, London to purchase earlier volumes of Public Procurement Law Review. The Society supports Kings on an annual basis and it is anticipated that the total grant to Kings this year will amount to about £3,400. The library facilities at King's are available to members of the Society. The same is true regarding the facilities in the library of Wolverhampton University. A grant of £3,160 was awarded to this university to renew the annual subscriptions to construction law journals and on-line resources. The University of Strathclyde was awarded a grant of £2,464 to purchase books and to subscribe to a CD-Rom construction law service.

The award of grants will be reviewed again in the summer. If you know of a likely recipient, please encourage them to apply, either in writing to Jim Pragnell or through the SCL website.

SCL Discount List

Enclosed with this newsletter is an updated copy of the list of discounts available to SCL members.

Adjudication Society - recent case notes

As some of you may know, Nicholas Gould is the case notes editor for the Adjudication Society. The Society meets occasionally and issues a monthly newsletter containing material on adjudication as well as notes on recent cases dealing with adjudication. Should you have access to any topical case transcripts then please forward them to Nicholas who will be pleased to consider summarising them for publication. Credit is given to the person supplying any that are published. He can be contacted by email at ngould@fenwickelliott.co.uk

European Society of Construction Law Conference

In conjunction with the Centre of Construction Law at King's College, the ESCL Conference 2002 will be held at King's College, London on Friday 12th July 2002; it is hoped that this will be a joint event between ESCL, SCL, King's College and the Society of Construction Arbitrators. There is also a possibility of participation in the conference by a visiting group of construction lawyers from the United States. The title of the conference is "Best Practice in International Infrastructure Procurement" and a number of internationally renowned speakers have already confirmed their attendance.

Pre Event for the World Summit for Sustainable Development (The Earth Summit 2002)

The Construction Industry Council's Sustainable Development Committee is organising a one-day event in preparation for the world Summit for Sustainable Development in September 2002.

The event, which is being organised in conjunction with the RICS Foundation, is due to be held on Tuesday 14th May 2002 at the RICS. The aim is to use this event as the springboard to the UK construction industry's contribution to the Earth Summit and CIC welcomes suggestions and ideas, both for the format of the day and of any contributions that members may wish to make at the Earth Summit.

The aim of the event is to put forward a number of projects that demonstrate best practice in terms of sustainability to an audience of 100-150 Industry representatives. CIC cordially invites all members to put forward projects or case studies from their sector of the industry to be represented at the event.

For information please contact Micky Klippel-Arden by email at mklippel-arden@cic.org.uk

SCL Papers

Members will recently have received through the post two papers in the new design: The Hon Mr Justice Forbes paper 'Adjudication - The First 1,000 Days: A General Overview' (given in London in December last year) and John Marrin QC's paper 'Concurrent Delay' (given in London in February).

Two papers have been put on SCL's website this year (but not printed): 'Corporate Killing - A New Offence' by Bridget Bird and Noy Trounson (based on a paper given in Nottingham in July last year) and - more recently - 'The Use and Development of Mediation Techniques in UK and International Construction Disputes' by Keith Brandt (a paper given in Hong Kong in February to a conference organised by the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators).

If you have not yet explored the papers section of the SCL website, it is well worth doing so. There is now a search facility and published papers can be purchased on line.

Renewal of 2002 Membership

Many renewal of membership payments have been received. Thank you. For those of you who have not yet paid, a reminder that this year you can pay either by sending a sterling cheque to the Admin office or by Debit card via the website. Simply go to the home page and follow the "membership renewal" link under "what's new".

SCL Web Site: www.scl.org.uk

For those new to the Society and/or to the WWW our web site is a constant source of new information. Items which have arrived too late to be published in a Newsletter, or details of meetings which have been arranged after the seasonal Diary has gone to print, will be posted on the website. It contains details of our future programme and contact details for university book grants.

As mentioned above, you can also purchase hard copies of past papers on line via the "papers" section of the website, alternatively you can download a copy of the most recent papers before they are printed in hard copy.

Photographs taken at the Brewery Lunch held on Friday, 1st March are currently on the website. If you attended, take a look!

SCL Membership

We are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Society during February 2002:

The number of members continues to grow. So far, seventeen new members have joined in February.

Regional Coordinators

Are you moving? Will your contact details change? Do we have your email address? Please tell Membership Administration so that we can keep our records up to date.

Membership/Administration
67 Newbury Street
Wantage, Oxon., OX12 8DJ
Tel: 01235 770606
Fax: 01235 770580
Email