Why are some process plants not covered by the Construction Act?

By Tony Bingham2020-04-16T06:00:00

Let’s end the immunity of certain types of project from the Construction Act – it was always more about power than logic

A recent Court of Appeal case gave a thick ear to the folk in the process industry for pulling the wool over the eyes of parliament. It is C Spencer Ltd vs MW High Tech Projects Ltd [06/03/2020]. The three-judge court reminded us what happened when the Construction Act was going through parliament in 1996. The then government, said Lord Howie at the time, was “got at by some big, powerful, important interests in what are called the process industries. They yielded to those pressures and in so doing lost sight of the aim of the bill.” The Court of Appeal has now added, all these years later: “Whatever the reason for it, many contracts for works which, on any sensible definition, are construction operatives, were excluded from the ambit of the act.”

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