Over the course of this year the Joint Contracts Tribunal has been rolling out 2024 editions of their suite of contracts, beginning with the Design and Build contract which arrived back in April 2024, followed by the Minor Works (May 2024), Intermediate Contract (July 2024), Standard Form (August 2024) and the JCT PCSA (September 2024). There’s more to come, with a date yet to be announced for the Measured Term Contract, widely used across our sector.
The changes broadly respond to market and legislative changes, covering such things as the Building Safety Act 2022, fire safety, the insurance market and recent case law. They also factor in global affairs such as the pandemic and recent conflicts, and look to modernise the suite, with the adoption of electronic signing processes and of gender-neutral language.
At CHIC we utilise a selection of JCT Contracts as part of our own pool of sector specific access agreements. These were produced in conjunction with Trowers and Hamlins and have been tailored to allow flexible use across the breadth of our frameworks. We have recently commissioned Trowers to undertake a review of all our access agreements, including the JCT contracts, as we look to bring them in line with the 2024 changes. This exercise will be completed within our current 24/25 financial year (July to June) and will cover our framework agreements and execution process.
We worked with Trowers further to bring CHIC stakeholders a webinar on the 2024 JCT suite, to explain how the changes apply in practice. I spoke on this alongside Katie Saunders of Trowers, giving an overview of what’s new, breaking down the detail and explaining CHIC’s support as part of my role in the Commercial team.
Ultimately, while I think the changes aren’t huge to our members and supply chain partners, it is important to ensure we continue to keep abreast of industry developments and offer a suite of contracts that is in line with current industry best practise. We will therefore be implementing any changes as part of the review to ensure all our clients have access to up-to-date contracts. We will continue to monitor the remaining JCT releases for any future relevant updates that may factor into our upcoming review. If you have any questions on this, please get in touch with me and in the meantime you can watch CHIC’s JCT Training webinar if you haven’t already.
Kieran Waud-Shaw
Commercial Coordinator
