A draft law that will introduce a licensing system for building contractors will be published next month, Planning Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi said on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Robert Abela, the minister said, had confirmed last Friday that a new law proposing the regulation of contractors will be finalised in March.
“By next month will have a ready draft that regulates the licensing of contractors,” Abela said on Friday.
Currently, anyone seeking to work as a contractor in the construction industry does not require any qualification, training, nor a license to conduct their business. This state of affairs has been widely criticised, particularly by the Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers (KTP), who have made repeated calls for contractors to be licensed in the wake of a series of dangerous incidents.
The government has previously promised to introduce a licensing system to curb abuse on three separate occasions.
In 2019 then planning minister Ian Borg said that licensing system would be in place by December 2019.
“If you do not have a licence, you cannot operate in the industry. This should happen by the end of the year,” Borg said four years ago.
A similar pledge to licence contractors was made almost two years ago, in January 2021, by then-parliamentary secretary for construction Chris Agius who had said the setting up of the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) would lead to the licencing of contractors.
Last November, Zrinzo Azzopardi, whose ministry oversees the BCA, said contractors in the construction industry will soon require a licence to operate.
“A public consultation will kick off in the coming weeks,” he had said at the time.
On Tuesday Zrinzo Azzopardi said a draft will be ready in March with changes eventually coming through a legal notice.
"There is a need for licensing and the system will lead to higher standards in the construction industry," Zrinzo Azzopardi said.
Contractor licensing is only one way to “upgrade” the construction sector, Zrinzo Azzopardi said.
The Minister added that previously the KTP had been given increased authority to penalise wayward architects, while other incentives yet to be introduced include amendments to the legal notice regulating health and safety regulation on building sites to expand the powers of project supervisors.
Public Inquiry to Sofia construction death
Zrinzo Azzopardi skirted questions about whether he would support a public inquiry into the death of Jean-Paul Sofia, a 20-year-old who died following the collapse of a construction site in Corradino.
The Minister appealed for those involved in the ongoing magisterial inquiry to finish their work quickly, “so those that need to answer to the law do so,” he said.
Earlier on Tuesday PN leader Bernard Grech said the Opposition will be moving a parliamentary motion that asks for a "public and independent" inquiry into the death of Sofia. A PN spokesperson confirmed the motion will be put forward “in the coming days”.