Commentary on Sections Part 1: Consumer Contracts for Goods, Digital Content and Services What services contracts are covered? Section 48: Contracts covered by this Chapter
237.This section sets out which contracts are covered by Chapter 4. It follows the structure of the corresponding provision of the SGSA but makes clear that Chapter 4 is only concerned with contracts where a trader provides a service to a consumer (and not where a trader provides a service to another trader or where a consumer provides a service to a consumer or a trader). It also sets out that contracts of employment are not covered by this Chapter.
238.In contrast to the relevant Part of the SGSA, Chapter 4, like the rest of the Act, applies to the whole of the UK, including Scotland.
239.In keeping with the SGSA, Chapter 4 also covers contracts in which the trader does not undertake to provide the service personally, but rather uses a subcontractor (or agent) to perform the service. For example, a house-building firm may engage a specialist glazing firm to perform part of the work that they have contracted with the consumer to perform, and the house-builder would still be bound by the provisions in this Chapter for the performance of the service by the glazing firm.
240.This section includes a power exercisable by statutory instrument to dis-apply the provisions to a particular service or particular services. There is a similar power in the SGSA, which has been used to dis-apply section 13 (implied term to take reasonable care and skill) of SGSA to the services provided by an advocate in a court or tribunal, by a company director, by a director of a building society and the management of a provident society to that building or provident society and finally to services rendered by an arbitrator in their capacity as such. Contracts of employment are also excluded from the scope of SGSA. Employees are protected by employment specific legislation, such as the Employment Rights Act 1996.
241.This Chapter applies whether the service is supplied immediately or the parties agree that the trader will supply it at a future time.