NEC Engineering and Construction Contract

The New Engineering Contract (NEC), or NEC Engineering and Construction Contract, is a formalised system created by the Institution of Civil Engineers that guides the drafting of documents on civil engineering and construction projects for the purpose of obtaining tenders, awarding and administering contracts. As such they legally define the responsibilities and duties of Employers (who commission work) and Contractors (who carry out work) in the Works Information. The contract consists of two key parts the Contract Data part one (Data provided by the Employer) and Contract Data part two (Data provided by the Contractor). Several approaches are included making it a family of options. It is used in the UK and internationally in countries including New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa.

There have been four editions, the first in 1993, the second in 1995, the third in 2005 and the most recent in 2017. The NEC3 was launched in 2005 and it was amended in April 2013.

NEC4 was announced in March 2017 and will be available after June 2017. This new edition reflects procurement and project management developments and emerging best practice, with improvements in flexibility, clarity and the ease of administration. It also introduces two new contracts: NEC4 Design, Build and Operate (DBO) and NEC4 Alliance Contract (ALC).

The NEC is a family of standard contracts, each of which has these characteristics:

The NEC3 complies fully with the Achieving Excellence in Construction (AEC) principles. The Efficiency & Reform Group of The UK Cabinet Office recommends the use of NEC3 by public sector construction procurers on their construction projects.

The NEC contracts now form a suite of contracts, with NEC being the brand name for the "umbrella" of contracts. When it was first launched in 1993, it was simply the "New Engineering Contract". This specific contract has been renamed the "Engineering and Construction Contract" which is the main contract used for any construction based project. It now sits alongside a number of other contracts that together should mean that the NEC suite is suitable for what ever stage of a lifecycle the project is at and for any party within a project. The contracts available within the suite are:

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