Boris Johnson’s lengthy to-do list is unlikely to contain the task “must amend the Construction Act”. Yet the 1996 act has only been modified once, by legislation of 2009. Since then, it has become clear that further improvements could be made. At the start of 2020, here are three in particular that I would like to see.

The first improvement is straightforward. It is to bring the power and process plant industries within the Construction Act. In 1996 parliament considered those sectors less dispute‑prone than the traditional building industry and not in need of adjudication. That view has been shown to be wrong, not least by the number of reported cases involving process plants. Worse, the legislation, which only excludes some types of work in this area (broadly, installation of large items of kit) has led to many disputes about whether the works in question are indeed excluded. There is even the absurdity of the “hybrid” contract, where work under a single contract can be partly inside, and partly outside, the act.

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