CIC Cascade

1 August 2003

DTI Raising the Thresholds

CIC Launch DQI online

CIC Publish Occupational Standards online!

Collateral warranties update

National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications review

DTI Raising the Thresholds
Proposals to increase the audit exemption threshold and the threshold defining medium-sized companies – a consultation document

All limited companies are required, by the 1985 Act to prepare and file accounts with Companies House. Above a certain size criteria those accounts are required by statute to be independently audited. Private companies below the audit exemption threshold are exempt from the statutory requirement to audit their accounts.

The audit exemption threshold is currently £1 million (expressed by turnover) and currently all companies with a turnover above £1 million are required to have a statutory audit of their annual accounts. This consultation document seeks views on proposals that will increase the turnover threshold to £5.6 million, following research into the impact of the last increase in the audit exemption threshold.

The consultation document also confirms the Government's intention to raise the small and medium-sized company thresholds to the maximum possible under EU law. The intention is to increase small and medium-sized company thresholds, from £2.8 million and £11.4 million respectively to £5.6 million and £22.8 million respectively (expressed by turnover). These increases will enable those businesses to take advantage of modified accounting and filling provisions and take advantage of tax allowances that are available to them.

For the audit exemption threshold, consultees are asked to identify and quantify any costs or savings for their business, or more generally, resulting from an increase in the audit exemption threshold to the maximum permissible under the EU law.

For the small and medium-sized company thresholds, consultees are asked to identify and quantify any costs or savings for their business, or more generally, resulting from the proposal to increase the threshold defining small and medium-sized companies.

The consultation document can be downloaded from DTI’s website at:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/cld/thresholds.pdf

CIC intends to arrange a common response and is inviting its Members to comment and send individual responses by 24 September to Jobran Hammoud at:

Construction Industry Council
26 Store Street
London
WC1E 7BT

Tel: 02073997412

CIC Launch DQI online

The Construction Industry Council will launch DQI Online, the web based version of the Design Quality Indicator, early this autumn. The Beta Version of DQI Online is currently being tested by Trailblazers on live projects.

CABE, Rethinking Construction/Constructing Excellence and OGC have all reaffirmed their support to the DQI for this next phase in its development. Use of the DQI is one of the six headline targets of the Strategic Forum for Construction.

The DQI assessment produces the collective opinion of design quality taking views from all stakeholders in the construction process under the headings of Functionality, Build Quality and Impact. DQI Online will allow assessments to be managed on the web through a fully interactive database tool, which provides respondents with instant feedback on their views of the design and collective DQI output to leaders. The interface for users has been designed to be as approachable and user friendly as possible requiring just an 8 digit key to coordinate the responses. DQI Online will be charged on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Since DQI Trailblazing was launched 12 months ago, the DQI has been successfully trialled by 84 organisations consisting of design firms, public and private clients and contractors, including Buro Happold, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Edward Cullinan Architects, Penoyre and Prasad Architects, Skanska, Hoare Lea and Partners, Bennetts Associates Architects, and 15 local authorities (for a fuller list please see http://www.dqi.org.uk/trailbla.htm).

The DQI has been used on a diverse range of projects; the most popular being private offices (20% of DQI use), social housing (10%) and education (40%). Complementing work by the Audit Commission who use the DQI to compare PFI and non PFI schools, local authorities such as Devon are using the DQI in bundled PFI projects to help individual schools articulate their needs to design teams and assess the tender outputs.

Trailblazer feedback has revealed that the DQI is most useful at briefing for aligning the project teams’ ambitions and through the design process for evaluating progress. Feedback from use has shown that it is recommended that an independent facilitator be used to maximise the value added by the DQI process. Over 700 people have completed a DQI predominately during briefing and design, and encouragingly 34% of these respondents are users and 5% facilities managers – showing that the views of those who will eventually use and manage buildings are important to Trailblazers.

Trailblazers surveyed at a DQI conference last week reaffirmed the DQI’s success as 92% found the DQI to be useful or very useful, and 100% intend to continue using the DQI in the next phase.

In addition to the formal launch in autumn, CIC are committed to holding regional DQI workshops from January 2004.

If you would like any further information please contact William Hawkins the DQI Manager at CIC on 020 7399 7414, Email: whawkins@cic.org.uk or go to http://www.dqi.org.uk

CIC Publish Occupational Standards online!

CIC has completed updating the higher level Occupational Standards for the Built Environment and has published them on the web in order to provide the optimum access for potential users. They can be found at www.cicsc.org.uk.

CIC’s Framework of Occupational Standards covering the Professional Managerial and Technical occupations in the built environment has been developed over the past 13 years and cover all of its main disciplines (including planning, transportation, design, building and civil engineering, building services engineering, property etc.).

The Occupational Standards provide a powerful multi-purpose tool for industry employers, individuals, professional institutions, learning and training providers, as well as being a potential strategic planning tool. There is a long term strategy to introduce Occupational Standards into the life of the industry so that value is added by enabling the industry to use the Occupational Standards as a ‘common currency’. This will provide a mechanism for forging progression links between academic, vocational and professional qualification systems, as well as providing individuals, employers and the industry at large with tools for developing and measuring the performance of people.

Users accessing the Occupational Standards on the web will have free access to:

• view the entire Occupational Standards map at any level
• operate basic search facilities to find particular Occupational Standards in which they have an interest;
• print off copies of all screen-viewed information.

The next stage in developing the website will be the introduction of a subscription password access service This service will allow subscribers value added services such as advanced search facilities, options enabling the selection of sets of identified Occupational Standards, access to MS Word versions of all viewed information and other Occupational Standards application facilities as they become available.

The Occupational Standards website will be continuously updated by the Construction Industry Council as and when required. For further information on the Occupational Standards please contact David Cracknell on dcracknell@cic.org.uk.

Collateral warranties update

The Construction Industry Council (CIC) have published this month new standard forms of collateral warranty for consultants to give to funders and purchasers/tenants in respect of commercial or industrial developments.

The CIC forms of collateral warranty have been based on the BPF forms of collateral warranties for funders and purchasers/tenants which were published in 1992/93 but they have been updated to take account of changes in the law since that time. These new forms are suitable for use in England and Wales and Scotland.

Liability under the CIC warranty for the purchasers/tenants is limited to the cost of repairs only, as under the BPF form of warranty, and the CIC forms for both funders and purchasers/tenants contain net contribution clauses, again as in the BPF forms. The step-in rights in the CIC funders' warranty are substantially unchanged from those in the BPF forms. The licence clauses in both CIC forms are similar to those in the BPF forms save that the licence in respect of the documents needed for the health and safety file is not subject to the payment of fees.

The CIC forms have been updated as follows:

• The net contribution clause has been amended to take account of the decision in the Co-operative Retail Services case.
• There is no longer a need to list in the net contribution clause the other consultants and third parties with whom the consultant can be jointly liable: these parties are now referred to generically.
• The consultant is entitled to rely on any exclusion of liability in the appointment in addition to any limitation of liability as it is anticipated consultants will be excluding liability in respect of terrorism and asbestos claims following the withdrawal of cover for these claims by professional indemnity insurers.
• The deleterious materials clause refers to the Arup publication "Good Practice in Selection of Construction Materials".
• The obligation to maintain professional indemnity insurance now refers to the aggregate cover available for pollution and contamination, asbestos and date recognition.
• Assignment of the purchaser/tenant warranty is limited to twice only and the funder's warranty to another funder only.
• The time for bringing claims is to be limited to a number of years (which is to be inserted as before) from practical completion or if that is not achieved from the date the consultant finishes its services.
• The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 has been excluded.

This note is reproduced with the kind permission of Beale & Company, solicitors, who assisted in drafting the warranties.

National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications review

CIC is about to review and update the next phase of higher level National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications (NVQs/SVQs). The work involves the revision of qualifications covering Construction Contracting Levels 3 and 4 (which sets occupational standards for estimators, buyers, planners, surveyors and other technical support roles in general and specialist contracting areas); Construction Contracts Management Level 5 covering those who operate in senior roles in contracting; and Quantity Surveying Practice at Level 4 covering those operating in quantity surveying consultancy roles.

The qualifications are developed by industry practitioners in conjunction with CIC and other industry bodies. Experienced practitioners who would like to contribute voluntarily to helping improve the competence of those working in the industry, are invited to apply to join the Working Group (involves approx. 8 monthly meetings), or offer to provide feedback on the work as it develops. For further information, please contact dcracknell@cic.org.uk.