Whether consequences caused by covid-2019 amount to force majeure will always be a fact specific determination.

Unhelpfully for many, the government’s emergency Cobra meeting agreed on 23 March that construction sites should continue to operate provided that they can follow Public Health England guidance and have suitable measures in place to minimise the risk of covid-19 (C-19) spreading.

That put paid to many force majeure (FM) notices of the week before where it was determined safe working could not be carried out, save for example where groundworks in a greenfield site can be accessed with each operative driving his own vehicle to access the site, and avoiding common mess areas.