Legal

More than 90 Network Rail workers have been dismissed for consuming alcohol or drugs in the past four financial years, Construction News can reveal. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that 23 of the rail company’s staff were sacked after tests found alcohol in their system at…

A plant-hire company has successfully challenged HM Revenue and Customs over value-added tax on red diesel, a decision its trade association has said could have far-reaching consequences for the industry. Glasgow-based GAP Group appealed HMRC’s decision to tax the red diesel in its plant machinery from March 2017 to March…

A property vehicle half-owned by Urban Splash is pursuing a claim of £21m from consultancy Arcadis over delays to a housing scheme in Salford, Greater Manchester. The dispute relates to work on the three-block Upton phase of the Irwell Riverside scheme near Trinity Way, being developed by special purpose vehicle…

L&G is suing a contractor, architect and structural engineer over alleged defects at an Aberdeen city centre office block. The seven storey Union Plaza building, currently let to several companies including Deloitte, was built by Stewart Milne Group and completed in 2008. It was owned by a Stewart Milne Group…

A builder has been fined and handed a suspended prison sentence after fraudulently claiming a £50,000 Covid loan which he subsequently lost in a crypto scam. Lukasz Nowak, a self-employed builder from Hounslow in West London, claimed the maximum amount available from the government under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme…

A judge has dismissed Lendlease’s attempt to sue Aecom for £3m over fire-safety defects at a cancer centre it worked on in Yorkshire. Justice Stephen Eyre said he would have found the consultancy liable for eight defects if Lendlease had brought the legal action about nine months earlier, but stated…

Two companies have been fined a total of £240,000 after two workers fell 27 metres as the result of a defective cradle. Marcel Botnaru and Radu Baracu were working in the cradle at level nine of a residential tower in Pennington Street, Wapping, east London. According to a statement from…

Edinburgh City Council is still dealing with an ongoing legal claim almost a decade after the opening of its troubled tram system, it has emerged. The Scottish local authority included £4.5m for “resolving outstanding disputes” in a table of estimated costs to the public purse from the project. A public…

J Murphy & Sons has agreed a compensation settlement with four sacked workers following a lengthy dispute. The employees – fitters and welders working on a refurbishment project at Ireland’s giant Rusal Aughinish Alumina refinery – were dismissed in 2022 after a meeting at the plant to discuss the non-payment…

A demolition contractor has been fined £60,000 after a labourer was hit by masonry in an incident that left him “lucky to be alive”. MAC Demolition, the firm contracted to carry out the works, was fined over the incident, which took place in Kilburn, north-west London, last year. The west-London…