“The Witches’ Spell” from Macbeth, by William Shakespeare:

FIRST WITCH:

Round about the cauldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw:

Toad that under cold stone, Days and nights has thirty-one.

Sweltered venom, sleeping got, Boil thou first i’ the charmèd pot.

ALL:

Double, double, toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.

October has been a busy month for PLC Construction, with notes published on global claims, the ICE suite of contracts and the NEC3 Professional Services Contract. We also published a schedule of amendments for the JCT Design and Build Contract, 2005 edition, Revision 2 2009. (more…)

The Conservative Party plans to allow medium to large construction businesses to procure independent health and safety audits. If a firm passed an audit, it could bar the HSE from entering the audited site. Is this genius or folly? (more…)

The Electronic Working Pilot Scheme has been piloted at the TCC in London since July 2009. Has it been a success? PLC Construction attended an HMCS workshop to find out. (more…)

PLC Construction recently received an enquiry about an employer’s ability to deduct liquidated and ascertained damages (LADs) for delay under a demand issued after the contractor had gone into administration. Could the employer set-off its demand for LADs under the Insolvency Rules?

(more…)

Of the three key factors that drive a project (cost, quality and time), time management is by far the least developed and understood.

This was highlighted by the Chartered Institute of Building’s (CIOB) report, Managing the risk of delayed completion in the 21st century. Having identified the problem, the CIOB is trying to solve it. (more…)

If you successfully enforce an adjudicator’s decision in the Technology and Construction Court (TCC), you will usually recover your costs. But how much might you recover? (more…)