Briefing: Further proposals regarding statutory adjudication in the construction industry

The draft bill currently before the UK Parliament radically proposes a widening of statutory adjudication in the construction industry to cover all oral and part-oral contracts under its umbrella. However, it addresses few of the major practical issues concerning the practice of adjudication raised during the lengthy industry-wide consultation period. Recently, Lord O’Neill tabled some interesting further amendments specifically targeting some of those concerns – in particular, a proposed uniform statutory scheme and a prohibition on any form of agreement requiring one party to an adjudication to bear the costs irrespective of outcome.