News

Update imminent for Infrastructure Conditions of Contract

Rosemary Beales

ICC update will be more accessible and logical, all risks are allocated in just one clause instead of 16 separate sub-clauses and the redrafting takes into account Government strategy including early warning, says ACE contracts adviser Rosemary Beales.

When the Infrastructure Conditions of Contract (ICC) were published in August 2011 to replace the ICE Conditions the primary objective was to ensure that there remained available a standard form of infrastructure contract which would both be familiar to those who had used the ICE Conditions and offer a suite of contracts to cater for a variety of contract strategies.

It was also acknowledged at that time that contracts need to evolve in order to remain relevant and accommodate new technologies and practices.

In 2012 an interested group of users, including clients, contractors and consulting engineers met as a Development Forum with the objective of reviewing the ICC contracts to ensure not only that they reflected current industry practices and technologies but also the key components of the Government's Construction Strategy.

"The group worked to ensure clear and direct drafting in a logical format and include contract provisions that promote early warning of relevant events leading to collaborative action, incorporate Building Information Modelling (BIM) and maintain, so far as possible, the balance of risk contained in the original ICE and current ICC conditions ."

It was agreed that a new and updated version of the contract should be produced and a restructuring group was established. Chaired by John Uff QC the group was mandated to produce a draft that would, while retaining the "look and feel" of the current document, deliver the needs of todays industry .

The group worked to ensure clear and direct drafting in a logical format and include contract provisions that promote early warning of relevant events leading to collaborative action, incorporate Building Information Modelling (BIM) and maintain, so far as possible, the balance of risk contained in the original ICE and current ICC conditions .

It also recognised the advantage of retaining the supervisory and administrative role of the professional engineer and the need to review and simplify the dispute resolution provisions given the many options that are now available.

The multi- disciplinary nature of the market is acknowledged within the contract as is the potential for its international application given the volume of international construction projects for which there are few standard forms of contract from which to choose. The restructuring group has addressed the issues arising from international use and incorporated appropriate provisions.

Throughout the redrafting exercise the intention was primarily to carry out a long overdue review of a well established form of contract, improve it and bring it up to date with current construction practice. While the merits and claims of other forms of contract were fully recognised it was considered that there is a need for choice to be offered to the client whose capital investment strategy will include selection of appropriate conditions of contract. A key test for the new ICC conditions will be if their use facilitates completion to the quality specified, on time and to budget and the contract offers the means for delivery of this objective.

The revised ICC was presented by John Uff QC as a consultative draft to a meeting of the Society for Construction Law in March and comments invited. A copy of the Paper presented and a copy of the draft can be viewed in the PDF attached to this page on the ACE website here and if you have any views please email them to rbeales@acenet.co.uk

This paper is made available with the kind permission of the Society of Constrruction Law.  See www.scl.org.uk for further information about the Society, its activities, membership and its library of papers.

The consultation paper is made available until 1st July 2014