Newsletter
Information for members
December 2003

Previous issue: November 2003
Next issue: January 2004

Programme

Details of further meetings, and of SCL’s 21st Birthday party on Monday, 18th October, will be given in due course.

Subscriptions for 2004

Council has decided that the membership subscription for 2004 needs to be increased. From 1 January therefore, the joining fee and annual membership fee will be £65 and £100 respectively. We are constantly striving to increase the scale of our activities and we hope you feel that the membership fee continues to represent good value for money. Enclosed with this newsletter is your renewal of membership invoice. You may deduct £5 from the total if payment is made before the end of January.

[Please note: there are those who will find no invoice enclosed, ie, founder members, honorary members and those who have joined since 1 October]

Membership - new on-line database and data protection issues

As most of you will know we publish a hard copy annual Directory of members every year, usually during the summer. We would now like to extend this to an on-line version.

We have never had complaints from anyone about being in the hard copy Directory but in order to satisfy the data protection act we feel we should formally check with you. However to make this as easy as possible we are just asking you to tick the box on the renewal form if you no longer wish to be included. In other words the default position will remain that your name will be published in the hard copy directory next summer unless you tell us otherwise.

We are also now looking to publish an on-line version of the same Directory. Again we see that this will be something that is for members benefit only and at this stage our plan will be to make it available to members only through a restricted part of the website. When renewing your membership you will be asked to confirm that you are prepared for your contact details to be included in an on-line database at the SCL website. Here we see the default position is that we will not include your details in the on-line directory unless you specifically request us to do so.

Lunch at the Brewery

The Society’s Lunch at the Brewery will be held on Friday, 27th February. The speaker this year will be Her Honour Judge Frances Kirkham.

The £45 ticket price has been kept to the same price it was last year and attached to this newsletter is a flyer giving details on how to book. Last year’s lunch was very popular and the tickets sold out quickly. A larger room has been booked this year but we still advise early booking to avoid disappointment!

SCL Hudson Prize 2003 (5,000 word essay)

A final reminder that entries for this year’s SCL Hudson Prize must be received by the closing date of 31st December 2003.

In addition to the kudos that comes with winning this prestigious prize, the winner will receive a cheque for £1,500 and a case of fine wine. The winner of the second prize will receive a cheque for £750 (plus wine) and commendations may also be awarded. Entries must be original, ie, not previously published elsewhere and the Society reserves the right to publish the winning entries in hard copy and/or on its website, with copyright being held jointly by the author and the Society.

If you need any further information, contact Jackie Morris at the admin office, or download a copy of the leaflet giving entry details from the SCL website.

SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol – Latest News and request for your experiences

How is it for you? We would like to hear about your experiences (good and bad) of the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol. Can any organisations report any policy changes in the way they are planning their work, for example by using protocol compliant methodologies? Please send us your news so that it may be shared via the web site and the newsletter. Just send an email to feedback@eotprotocol.com

We have recently learnt that work involving standard forms is going on in both Hong Kong and the UK. In Hong Kong we understand that Keith Pickavance is participating in the re-writing of the Hong Kong Standard Form of Building Contract. We understand that the drafters of this new form have agreed that it will be “Protocol compliant”, probably by incorporation of a supplement.

In the UK we have recently been made aware of the “management supplements”, these are described below:

Management Supplements

In response to the demand for construction contracts that comply with the Society of Construction Law’s Delay and Disruption Protocol, solicitors Fenwick Elliott in conjunction with Pickavance Consulting are just about to publish Change Management Supplements for the following JCT Standard Forms of Contract:

1) JCT 98 – The Standard Form of Building Contract, Private Edition with Quantities incorporating Amendment 4, 2002;

2) A Standard Form of Building Contract with Contract as Design 1998 Edition incorporating Amendment 4, 2002;

3) The Intermediate Form of Contract 1998 Edition incorporating Amendment 4, 2002;

4) The Agreement for Minor Buildings Works 1998 Edition incorporating Amendment 4; and 2002.

Each supplement will be accompanied by its own Guidance Note in order to assist the employer, contractor, the design team and the contract administrator put the supplement into practice.

The Change Management Supplement contains the amendments that are necessary to bring the standard form of building contract into conformity with the management techniques suggested in the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol.

We expect that further information about the above and other Protocol news will be provided shortly. Remember to send your news to feedback@eotprotocol.com

CIC

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) has published a third edition of its Model Adjudication Procedure. Copies can be obtained from Diwam Patel at CIC, 26 Store Street, London WC1E 7BT, telephone 020 7399 7405 dpatel@cic.org.uk price £10, £11 inc p&p (payment can be made by cheque or credit card). A note setting out the differences between the three editions can be found at www.cic.org.uk/liability. The main changes in this edition are the addition of an express 'slip rule' (new paragraph 28) and the deletion of the adjudicator's lien on fees.

Ethics Group

Ethics Group members have now been allocated to the four subgroups mentioned in the November newsletter and work on the tasks has begun. The co-ordinators are as follows:

Charlotte Blake - definitions;
Charles Brown - options;
Christopher Hill - issues;
Scott McKinnell - research.

It is not too late for you to join in if you wish, please just email Jackie Morris. Or find out more by going to the ethics section of the website.

In addition, the paper that His Honour Judge Anthony Thornton will give in London on 2nd December, 'Ethics and Construction Law - where to start?' will be published by the Society shortly.

Contributions invited from Members

What construction law related topic would you like to see presented as a talk? Please email your suggestions to Jackie Morris on admin@scl.org.uk and we will do our best to organise a talk in your area.

You are also invited to contribute to the newsletter. If you have an item related to construction law that you feel would be of interest to others, then please email text to Jackie Morris at admin@scl.org.uk. A member of Council will thereafter decide whether to include the item in the next newsletter. Please note that we do not accept advertisements or items of a commercial nature.

Grants

Every year SCL awards grants to educational establishments. We have previously given grants of over £1,000 each to King’s College London and to Glasgow Caledonian, Strathclyde and Wolverhampton universities for purchase of books and journals and for help towards the setting up of web facilities.

The award of grants is shortly to be reviewed again. If you know of a likely recipient, please encourage them to apply, either directly to Council Member David Risbridger on davidrisbridger@scl.org.uk or through the SCL website.

Member benefits

Members are reminded that they may use the Construction Law library at King’s College, London. However, please contact Sue Hart on 020 7848 2643 or susan.hart@kcl.ac.uk beforehand to check availability.

In addition, the website contains a list of discounts that have been negotiated on behalf of members. The list includes discounts on subscriptions to journals and on conferences, courses and books.

SCL Website

SCL Newsletter on line: A reminder that past copies of the newsletter are available at the website. You can also have a copy of the newsletter emailed to you every month. Just go to: www.scl.org.uk

For those members new to the Society and/or to the www, our website 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 is where you will find a list of over 100 titles of past papers, quite a few of which are available as free downloadable files. In addition, the website has links to more than 50 other sites considered to be of interest to members. If you think something is missing which should be there (so long as it is not a commercial site) then the facility now exists for you to create a link to the website (links will be monitored by the publications editor, Frances Paterson).

New Members

Finally we are pleased to welcome the following new members to the Society during November: