Our annual "What's Another Year?" bulletin is a
snapshot of the key legal and regulatory developments which we can
expect over the course of 2024, across a range of sectors and
practice areas.
TREND OF CONTRACTUAL CHANGES
We anticipate further changes to the Public Works Contracts. The
last of the changes throughout 2022 and 2023 were the introduction
of a limit on the Contractor's liability to a sum stated or the
Contract Price, and of revised price variation clauses for
materials and fuel, and for labour.
We anticipate further changes for the benefit of contractors
during 2024. Contracts that allocate risk to the party best placed
to manage it, taking into account the wider commercial climate,
will be critical to delivering the National Development Plan, as
will adequate resourcing of public agencies responsible for
consenting. We also expect the trend of negotiating liability caps
in private sector contracts to continue, reflective of pressures on
supply
