6.1 Effect of decision

6.1.1 Statutory provisions

6.1 Construction contracts governed by Part II of the Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 are required to provide that the decision of the adjudicator is binding until the dispute is finally determined by legal proceedings, by arbitration (if the contract provides for arbitration or the parties otherwise agree to arbitration) or by agreement.1 The parties are entitled to agree to accept the decision of the adjudicator as finally determining the dispute.2 If a construction contract regulated by Part II does not comply with these requirements, the adjudication provisions of the Scheme for Construction Contracts apply.3 The Statutory Scheme provides that the decision of the adjudicator shall be binding on the parties and that they shall comply with it until the dispute is finally determined by legal proceedings, by arbitration (if the contract provides for arbitration or the parties otherwise agree to arbitration) or by agreement between the parties.4 These provisions of the Act and the Scheme have been described as prescribing ‘temporary binding finality of an adjudicator's decision',5 although some difficulty has been acknowledged with the concept of the ‘temporary finality’ of an adjudicator's decision and as to what, precisely, are the consequences of the provision in the latter that an adjudicator's decision is ‘binding on the parties, and they shall comply with it until the dispute is finally determined by legal proceedings or arbitration'.6