One of the last jobs of the Construction Industry Board (CIB), which is being wound up at the end of June, will be to help make some minor changes to the adjudication process introduced in the Construction Act of 1996 and implemented a year later by the Scheme for Construction Contracts.

The CIB was asked by construction minister Nick Raynsford in June last year to carry out a review of the adjudication process. The Board published a report carrying the results of that review in February this year.

Its conclusion was that the process was working well. Chris Vickers, chairman of the CIB and the task group that carried out the review, said he had been impressed by the level of consensus across the supply chain.

All parts of the industry saw adjudication as a quick, low-cost and impartial means of resolving disputes during projects. After 18 months of operation they overwhelmingly agree that this is being achieved, said Vickers.

However, the report did recommend a few changes, notably the elimination of the potential for bespoke adjudication to be written into contracts. It felt this had provided fertile ground for trying to avoid the provisions of the Act.

The DETR does not agree. In a consultation paper making a number of proposals for improving the operation of adjudication it says any amendments should aim to make the Scheme more effective, not re-open the compromises underlying its drafting.

It does, however, intend to explore with the industry ways of promoting the use of the Scheme as it stands, rather than contractors writing bespoke versions of it into contracts.

The DETR\'s consultation document additionally proposes better guidance and training for adjudicators and better guidance on how to use the Scheme for those who want to do so.

It sets out the Government\'s intention to outlaw the practice of writing into contracts that a party referring a dispute to adjudication becomes liable for the whole cost of the process to both parties.

Anyone wishing to comment on the proposals has until Monday 18 June to do so. The consultation document can be found on the DETR website (at www.construction.detr.gov.uk/bregs/contract02.htm).

The winding up of the Construction Industry Board, meanwhile, is taking place at the end of an unsuccessful 18-month effort by Christopher Vickers to gain agreement for a new version of the Board to replace the existing body, which encompasses Stone Federation Great Britain through its membership of the National Specialist Contractors Council.

There was a positive response to Vickers\' proposals at a consultative conference in June last year but those recommendations have not been accepted by all the proposed members.

The decision to wind up the Board was taken following a meeting of the CIB on 11 April. The meeting agreed that a new strategic forum for the construction industry should be established to provide a pan-industry forum to oversee action on major issues such as safety.

Vickers hopes the new forum will fully engage the Confederation of Construction Clients (CCC) and will help the CCC become a fully inclusive single voice for construction clients.