JCT

1. The existing membership of the Joint Contracts Tribunal is as follows:-

2. There are, in practice four main participants within the contracting process. They are clients, professional consultants, main contractors and specialist/trade (sub) contractors. The JCT has no direct representation of private sector clients other than property developers, and its public sector members all represent local authorities. It does not provide for contracts/agreements between clients and consultants, nor between main contractors and subcontractors, unless they are nominated or, in limited cases, "named". There is therefore no total matrix of documentation available to the client. The representation on the JCT of the organisations does not reflect the modern structure of the industry, whereby the professional organisations gather together under the Construction Industry Council, the main contractors (and some subcontractors) under the Construction Industry Employers Council and the specialists under the Constructors Liaison Group. The presence of the Scottish Building Contract Committee (SBCC) as full members is somewhat anomalous, since it has its own Committee and Scottish contract documents.

3. A restructured JCT should take the following form:-

1. The Construction Clients' Forum should nominate 9 private sector members. Clearly it would be sensible if its representation came from as wide a spectrum as possible.

2. The public sector clients should also have nine seats, of which four should be for the Local Authority Associations and the remainder divided between Government procurers and significant public sector agency clients, including the housing association movement. The Department of the Environment should take responsibility for allocating such seats, and keeping the distribution of them under review.

3. The CIC, the CIEC and the CLG should each have nine seats, to be distributed amongst their members as they judge best.

4. The SBCC should retain observer status if it so wishes, and may wish to consider its own structure, to reflect changes in the JCT.

4. The membership should be grouped into a series of four "colleges" - clients (public and private), consultants (CIC), main contractors (CIEC) and specialist/trade (sub) contractors (CLG).

5. In order to create a complete family of interlocking documents, in accordance with the principles of Chapter 5.18, there should be a series of sub-committees. Thus:-

1. A sub-committee of clients and the CIC should be responsible for preparing a matrix of consultants' conditions of engagement, interlocking with each other and with the main building contracts.

2. A sub-committee of clients and the CIEC should prepare main contract documents.

3. A sub-committee of the CIEC and the CLG should prepare domestic subcontract documents.

4. A sub-committee of clients, the CIEC and the CLG should prepare nominated or "named" subcontract documents, if these are still desired.

As the New Engineering Contract already incorporates many of the principles of Chapter 5.18, it would be best if it were used as the basis for the work of the committees. The ICE would have to be involved as it holds the copyright.

6. Equal representation of both (or all, in the case of 5(4)) parties should be permitted on the sub-committees. Other parties should be invited to attend and advise, but not veto or vote upon contracts to which they are not a party. The Chair should alternate between the parties on the sub-committees.

7. It would be the duty of the whole JCT (or a representative smaller executive grouping of it) to ensure that the documents all interlock fully with each other. It should also supervise the preparation of any other documents necessary to complete the matrix including bonds, warranties, latent defects insurance and special conditions for design undertaken by contractors or specialist subcontractors. Such documents might require ad hoc groupings to formulate them, or could be dealt with by the appropriate sub-committees.