France: Transposing Dir. 2014/24 / EU and 2014/25 / EU, ordonnance (Government decree) n° 2015-899 of July 23, 2015 (the “Ordonnance”) lays the legal foundations of a single public procurement regime in France, in place of the previous position where the rules governing public procurement are scattered between various codes and statutes. Two key points of interest of the Ordonnance, which will become effective on 1 April 2016 at the latest, are: – – The freedom of contractors to subcontract will effectively be limited – – Owners will only be able to use PPPs where they can demonstrate that they are more favourable than another type of public procurement
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August Hong Kong: Since its inception in the UK in 1998, security of payment legislation has spread across common law countries, including Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. It seems as though such legislation is shortly to be enacted in Hong Kong too, and this August Hong Kong’s construction industry players made their responses to the Development Bureau’s consultation document submitted in August 2015. If, as expected, this legislation is introduced to Hong Kong by 2017, the legal dynamic of the construction industry will be altered by the introduction of statutory adjudication, and we may expect to see the number of arbitrations fall as payment disputes are dealt with by adjudication. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA): Ministerial Decision No 15098 (issued by the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs (the Ministry)) establishes a new classification system for engineering companies and consultancies (ECCs) operating in KSA. As from 10 March 2016, it will be compulsory for any ECCs wishing to bid for and/or carry out government contracts in KSA to have completed this classification process. An ECC wishing to participate in the tender process for a public project will need to satisfy the specific classification criteria set out in the tender documents. Canada: In a recent British Columbia Court of Appeal decision a contractor was hired to design and build a hospital wing. During construction, it was discovered that the concrete slab floors were over-deflecting and cracking. In this action, the contractor was seeking indemnity from its insurers with respect to a Course of Construction (Builder’s risk) policy. It was the first time that the wording of exclusion LEG 2/96 (defective workmanship) developed by London Engineering Group, a UK think tank, has been interpreted. The Court noted that LEG 1/96 and 3/96 also exist: being a broader and narrower exclusion respectively. Simply put, 2/96 falls in the middle and excludes
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