The UK Government is not collecting data on the use of cash retentions in the public sector, it has emerged.
The hands-off approach to the divisive issue of retentions in the industry was highlighted in a series of written answers to parliamentary questions published this week. They also revealed that it offers no guidance on the topic to procuring bodies and has no plans to include it in its Construction Playbook, which sets out best practice for public contracts.
Construction commentator Rudi Klein said the answers show the government is doing nothing to curb “retentions abuse”.
Lord Martin Callanan, a junior minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said on Tuesday that the government is working with the Construction Leadership Council “to identify a sustainable strategy on retentions”.
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By James Wates2021-03-05T06:00:00+00:00
This 80-page document should help unite clients and industry in a common goal, says James Wates
First we had the Outsourcing Playbook (versions one and two), and now we have the Construction Playbook, which the Cabinet Office released towards the end of 2020.
It’s an interesting twist on the American term playbook, which usually refers to a manual of tactics from which American football teams choose during the course of a game. Those teams guard their playbooks with their lives, lest the opposition figure out what’s coming at them.
It’s reassuring therefore that the government’s new Construction Playbook is a good deal more transparent and collaborative than the American football original. In this case, the central government and public sector clients have included all of us in the construction sector in their team. By understanding what’s in the playbook, we can all tackle our work knowing what others are doing and avoiding (to