ABSTRACT
Despite the intended impact on the UK construction industry of the Latham Report in 1994 and the Egan Report in 1998, there was growing concern by government, the external auditors of public sector procurement and a small number of leading edge repeat clients, that the traditional barriers to reform were proving unassailable. It was recognised that the primary reason for this was that the clients (particularly the internal professional advisers within their procurement groups) were refusing to change their traditional, sequential procurement practices and were unable to recognise that this was the main cause of the fragmentation and poor performance of the industry. This led to three concomitant, but independent moves to re-energise the reform by the publication of three best practice standards for construction procurement that could be imposed on clients by various external means. The three organisations that decided to take this proactive and courageous action were the National Audit Office, the Confederation of Construction Clients and the Cabinet Office (operating through the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, who worked with the Commission for Architecture in the Built Environment and the Treasury). The three best practice standards they developed were published in late 2000 and early 2001.
