Last week the House of Lords debated the changes to the
Construction Act at the key committee stage when they are supposed
to be subjected to their greatest scrutiny. In fact, to be precise,
the Lords debated proposed amendments to the government's
planned changes. It all took only 45 minutes.
Labour peer, Lord Borrie, on behalf of the Specialist
Engineering Contractors' Group, tabled the amendments. They
replicated those advanced and withdrawn by SECG's president,
Lord O'Neill. The government resisted all of the amendments,
which principally favoured subcontractors and those further down
the contractual chain. The main proposed amendments were as
follows:
- Require all payments under construction contracts governed by
the Act to be triggered by a payee's notice, in respect of
which the payer has an opportunity to say if it intends to pay less
with its "precise reasons". If the payer fails (for
whatever reason) to give a valid notice within 14 days of the
payment
