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Law Commission: Quinquennial Review
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Baroness Ashton of Upholland): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs (Mr. David Lammy) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
On 12 May 2003 my noble friend, Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the then Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, announced that John Halliday CB had submitted the report of his independent review of the Law Commission on 31 March 2003. She added that the Lord Chancellor had welcomed the thrust of the recommendations and asked the Ministerial Committee on the Law Commission, which is currently chaired by me, to oversee the action taken on the report.
The ministerial committee subsequently authorised the setting up of an interdepartmental project board to manage the implementation of the recommendations. This board has now completed its task and been dissolved.
In all, of the 42 recommendations made, 39 have now been dealt with; two are for the future; and one is being taken forward separately.
Major themes of the 39 recommendations included:
more effective communication between the Law Commission, government departments and other stakeholders. As a result a "Vision and Guidance" document, that sets out how the Law Commission and government departments will work together, has been published;
ensuring that the Law Commission's programmes of law reform are based on the best possible assessment of needs, priorities and resources. Consequently, the Law Commission undertook a wide consultation when preparing its ninth programme, which has been published today, 22 March 2005;
the development of more effective programme and project management at the Law Commission. As a result, the Law Commission has established a new electronic programme management system that will come into operation at the start of the ninth programme on 1 April 2005; and
improving the processes for deciding on and implementing Law Commission recommendations. As a result, time limits have been set by the Ministerial Committee on the Law Commission within which government departments are required to respond to commission reports.
Recommendation 30, aimed at identifying special parliamentary procedures to facilitate scrutiny of Law Commission Bills, is being taken forward separately by the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
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The "Vision and Guidance" and the paper setting out the quinquennial review recommendations and how the Government have responded to them have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and will shortly be available on the website of the Department for Constitutional Affairs at www.dca.gov.uk.
Parliamentary Questions
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Stephen Timms) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Treasury has conducted a review into the costing of Oral and Written Parliamentary Questions. The revised costs, which will apply from 1 April 2005, are:
The disproportionate cost threshold (DCT) relating to Answers to Written Parliamentary Questions and the recently introduced cost limit for requests to central government under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) are set at the same level—£600. The FoIA cost limit is due to be reviewed later this year. In order to maintain consistency between the two limits for the time being, the DCT will remain at £600.
House of Lords: Contingencies Fund Advance
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My right honourable friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (Mr. Paul Boateng) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The House of Lords is shortly to purchase new accommodation. In lieu of completion, which is expected to take place shortly, the Treasury agreed a cash advance essential to the purchase from the Contingencies Fund on 16 March in the sum of £50,294,225. This advance was given prior to the Royal Assent to the Appropriation Act on 17 March which gives parliamentary authority for the expenditure.
The advance will be repaid from the spring Supplementary Estimate.
Financial Services
Lord McIntosh of Haringey: My honourable friend the Financial Secretary (Mr. Stephen Timms) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
The Treasury is today publishing The UK Financial Services Sector: Rising to the Challenges and Opportunities of Globalisation. Copies are available in the Vote Office and the Library of the House. The document is also accessible on the Treasury website at www.hm-treasury.gov.uk.
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The paper sets out how the UK financial services sector will be integral to helping the rest of the UK economy and society to respond to long-term global economic changes, and presents a series of associated challenges for the sector and for policy-makers.
Construction Industry: Payment Practices
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Trade and Industry (Lord Sainsbury of Turville): My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Trade and Industry (Mr. Nigel Griffiths) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
I am pleased to announce that today, with Edwina Hart AM the Welsh Assembly Government Minister for Social Justice and Regeneration, I have launched a joint consultation on Improving Payment Practices in the Construction Industry.
The consultation proposes a number of amendments to Part II of the Housing Grants Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and the Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998.
The proposals are aimed at improving the ability of parties to a construction contract to:
reach agreement on what should be paid and when given the work done under the contract or, where they cannot agree, to make an informed referral to, or response at, adjudication;
manage cash flow and enable completion of work on the project in the event of problems such as defaulted payments, disputes or insolvencies elsewhere in the supply chain; and
refer disputes to adjudication without disincentives such as avoidance, frustration or unnecessary challenge.
Fair payment practice is something everyone agrees with and a fair payment culture underpins any progressive and modern industry.
This consultation considers a number of issues around the key principles of improving the ability of people in the construction industry to manage cash flow on construction projects and to bring about effective delivery, on time and to budget. It provides the opportunity for the whole industry and its clients to come together around a shared set of proposals.
The consultation considers issues and proposals identified during Sir Michael Latham's initial review of the construction Act, published in September 2004. Following the announcement of the review in the Budget in March 2004, I appointed Sir Michael to produce his report with input from the construction industry representative bodies and other stakeholders. Sir Michael's report raised some key issues. While the continued support of the construction industry representative bodies is vital to the effectiveness of this consultation process, we also hope to build a wider and deeper consensus on how to improve the construction
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contracts legislation and payment practices in the construction industry.
We have come a long way since the announcement of the review in the 2004 Budget and I hope this consultation process can take the dialogue within the industry further forward over the coming months.
The consultation considers 14 key proposals for amending Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 and the Scheme for Construction Contracts (England and Wales) Regulations 1998. These are:
defining the content of an adequate payment mechanism in Section 110(1) of the construction Act;
removing the requirement to serve a Section 110(2) notice in the construction Act;
providing an application for payment in the legislation;
redefining the content of withholding notices under Section 111; and
introducing a right to reimbursement for the costs of suspension and remobilisation and providing additional time for remobilisation under Section 112 of the construction Act;
making contractual provisions on cross-contract set-off ineffective;
making pay-when-paid clauses ineffective in cases of "upstream" insolvency proceedings; and
Allowing stage payments under the Scheme for Construction Contracts to be made for materials in advance of their arrival on site.
preventing the use of "trustee stakeholder accounts" to suspend an adjudicator's award pending litigation other than when the recipient is involved in insolvency proceedings;
providing the adjudicator with the power to rule on certain aspects of his own jurisdiction and providing a right to payment in cases where the adjudicator stands down due to lack of jurisdiction;
providing the adjudicator with the right to overturn "final and conclusive" decisions where these are of substance to interim payments only;
extending the adjudicator's immunity under the construction Act to claims by third parties; and
applying provisions on adjudicator independence from the Scheme for Construction Contracts to all adjudications in Section 108 of the construction Act.
The consultation period will close on 21 June 2005.
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