The revised and extended family of NEC contracts was published on 14 July 2005. All existing documents have been brought into line with the 3rd edition of the main Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC3) and two new forms for Term Service and Framework contracts make their first official appearance.

Twenty-three documents
In addition to the ECC and its six options, NEC3 now includes the Engineering and Construction Subcontract, Engineering and Construction Short Contract, Engineering and Construction Short Subcontract, Professional Services Contract, Adjudicator’s Contract, Term Service Contract and Framework Contract.

Together with various guidance notes and flow charts for each contract – plus a new guide to procurement and contract strategies – the family now comprises a total of 23 documents.

All contracts now updated
‘We took a bold decision at the turn of the year to update all contracts and publish them together,’ says NEC panel chairman Peter Higgins. ‘This has increased the workload substantially – a small change in one contract has to be cross-checked against all others and reviewed for inclusion in them.’

‘However, it does mean we will have a family of contracts working together, using the same terms and timing, which should ease the task of contract compilation and management considerably,’ he says.

Office of Government Commerce
NEC3 fully complies with the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) Achieving Excellence in Construction initiative and is endorsed by OGC for use by public sector procurers.

NEC3 digital
Also being launched is NEC3 digital, a new service providing online access to all NEC3 forms and contract data in open Word format for unlimited printing and copying. Annual licences will be available for single users, multiple users, company intranets and project extranets.

NEC3 at a glance
The key differences between the 2nd and 3rd editions of the NEC suite of contracts can be summarised as follows.

New Engineering and Construction Contract features:
· choice of two adjudication clauses, including a Construction Act-compliant procedure
· optional key performance indicators for bi-party contracts
· optional limitation of liability clauses
· introduction of risk-reduction meetings and risk register
· introduction of key dates
· new prevention clause with associated compensation event and termination provisions
· compensation event quotations accepted if project manager does not reply
· swift compensation event assessment for options A and B
· options C, D and E monthly assessment includes forecast to next assessment
· simplified schedule of cost components
· two fee percentages introduced.

New Term Service Contract
· based on draft published in 2002, which has been extensively trialled
· for managing and providing a service over a specific term
· not limited to professional or construction services
· examples include maintenance, inspection, cleaning, transport, data processing.

New Framework Contract
· contract between employer and a number of suppliers for a period of time
· for work of any kind under any NEC contract
· work carried out ‘as instructed’.