We are pleased to highlight that Alan was invited to chair the second of the Supply Chain Schools events on DLT in Construction on Thursday 21 March 2019. Feedback from Wilmott Dixon on the session: Great morning with Action Sustainability [supply chain school] and a few experts from the hashtag#blockchain world exploring, discussing and hashtag#debating emerging applications in the built hashtag#environment sector. I’ve been actively seeking practical applications for some time and believe today’s conversation has helped me turn a corner. hashtag#insightshashtag#learninghashtag#applicationhashtag#innovation

At this session, we were fortunate to have the support of experts in DLT. Dr Barry Childe, Damian Kozak and David Michael shared their experience of DLT in Banking and Finance, while Matt Colmer presented his findings from the research work of Digital Catapult and the Institute of Civil Engineers. Alan delivered a presentation on the risks and opportunities of DLT for the construction industry, as well as facilitating a workshop that brought together the various views of the audience and speakers. Alan’s review identified poor payment practices as an ongoing problem in the industry, which DLT could address. Furthermore, he focused on the relationships between multiple stakeholders, scope change across the project cycle and multiple platforms as exacerbating the problem. Therefore, the workshop looked at combining the work stages in the RIBA plan of work, with the contract matrix and DLT to streamline data flows: Sir Michael Latham’s report* identified that It is absolutely fundamental to trust within the construction industry that participants should be paid for the work which they have undertaken… The report also recommended a ban on “pay when paid”  and Mandatory trust funds for payments. One of the biggest changes to the industry that arose from these enquiries was the introduction of the Construction Act, which underpins Statutory Adjudication. However and as we know from the collapse of Carillion, late payment remains a problem in the industry. DLT has been used to streamline commercial transactions in other sectors, perhaps its time to bring this knowledge to Construction…