Just getting comfortable with Revision 1 of the JCT suite of contracts? You may therefore have mixed feelings about Sweet & Maxwell's decision to publish Revision 2 to the JCT 2005 suite of contracts.

The summary below focuses on the JCT Design and Build 2005 Revision 2, though the amendments to the other contracts in the JCT 2005 suite of contracts will be similar.

Adopting the OGC's Achieving Excellence in Construction Initiative

The main changes are incorporated into a new Part 2 to the Supplemental Provisions scheduled to the back of the building contract. These reflect the following principles adopted by the Office of Government Commerce in its Achieving Excellence in Construction initiative which RSLs who have used NEC3 will be familiar with:-

  • Acceleration – Revision 2 will consist of an acceleration quotation procedure;
  • Collaborative working;
  • Improved health and safety – Revision 2 will include an obligation to comply with non-statutory HSE and HSC approved codes and refers to specific training and consultation aspects of the health and safety legislation;
  • Cost savings and value improvements – whilst it is accepted that the main opportunity for a contractor to contribute in value engineering exercises will be under a pre-construction services agreement, such provisions are also to be included in Revision 2 of the main contract to address subsequent opportunities which may arise whilst the works are on-going or in respect of proposed variations to the works. These provisions are intended to give the contractor some measure of protection but do not include detailed drafting on methodology or the sharing of benefits;
  • Sustainable development and environmental considerations;
  • Performance indicators and monitoring – Revision 2 will contain brief provisions, on the assumption that the preliminaries should contain more detailed provisions; and
  • Notification and negotiation of disputes – Revision 2 will provide for the parties to notify disputes promptly and to nominate an appropriate senior person to seek to resolve such disputes before parties refer the dispute to any external dispute resolution procedure.

Beware, these new supplemental provisions will apply by default, unless you opt out of them in the Contract Particulars in the JCT 2005 Contracts.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.