The Adjudication Society has set a target or increasing the number of female adjudicators to 30%. Further details of the initiatives which are being put in place are set out below.

What is adjudication?

Adjudication is a procedure for resolving disputes without resorting to costly and lengthy court procedure, typically used in the construction industry. The Housing Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act 1996 introduced a statutory right for parties to a construction contract to refer their disputes to adjudication at any time.

Adjudication was designed to produce a cash flow interim remedy during the progress of a construction project and has been described as “pay first, argue later”. Adjudication has been a hugely effective and popular dispute resolution method, capable of resolving all types of disputes that may arise under a construction contract.

The report

On 7 November 2022, the Adjudication Society and the Centre of Construction Law & Dispute Resolution at King's College London published “Construction Adjudication in the United Kingdom: Tracing trends and guiding reform”, a report on UK construction adjudication. The report found that:

• Only 7.88% of Adjudicators on panels among the published list of eight Adjudicator Nominating Bodies (“ANB”) listed on the Adjudication Society’s website are women. 
• Adjudicators have identified the perceived obstacles to equal representation of underrepresented groups, with 37% identifying unconscious bias; 36% identifying poor or opaque hiring / selection process; and 35% identifying lack of vacancies or capped panel numbers.
• ANBs often have the sole discretion to make adjudicator appointments and are essential to improving diversity and in ensuring equal representation in adjudication. Measures taken by respondents include incorporating diversity into internal policies and/or practices and publicly communicating support for diversity.

Given these findings, on 28 February 2023, the Adjudication Society launched the two initiatives which were recommended in the report:

The Equal Representation in Adjudication Pledge

• A pledge that all persons with an interest in adjudication would commit to improving the profile and representation of women as adjudicators in the UK. This akin to the Arbitration Pledge which has been reasonably successful with over 5,000 signatories globally as of March 2023. For more information on the Arbitration Pledge, please see the following article on the Deloitte Legal blog: Gender diversity in arbitral appointments and proceedings.
• Through the pledge, organisations and practitioners would commit to promoting diversity in construction adjudication, including collating and publishing statistical data on diversity to improve transparency and involvement of underrepresented groups in conferences and events, or ensuring a fair representation of underrepresented groups in adjudicator nominations.
• Practitioners and organisations are to take the steps reasonably available to them to appoint women as adjudicators on an equal opportunity basis, to encourage other participants in adjudication to do likewise, and to ensure that wherever possible, there is a fair representation of women or women candidates in adjudication committees; governing bodies; conference panels and in lists of potential adjudicators.
• Adjudicators, representatives of corporates and ANBs are also to undertake to advance equality of opportunity between male and female adjudicators when making appointments. Finally, senior and experienced adjudication practitioners will pledge to support, mentor, sponsor and encourage women to pursue adjudication appointments and otherwise enhance their profiles and practice.

Women in adjudication

• The establishment of a steering group (the ‘Taskforce’) that is tasked with the promotion of women in adjudication, training and collecting qualitative data to understand why their participation is currently so low. It was suggested that the Taskforce could meet regularly and lead various initiatives, such as events or reports, aimed at improving diversity. The Taskforce could also organise a mentoring scheme for prospective adjudicators from underrepresented groups.

Final thoughts

Shining a light and promoting better representation is always encouraging and should be something all organisations and individuals should strive towards. These are only the first steps to improving gender diversity in the construction adjudication practice. Further steps will need to be taken in relation to other protected characteristics to ensure true diversity in adjudication.

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