22 June is notable as chocolate éclair day, onion rings day and now, following today's announcement by the NEC Contracts board, it will go down in history as NEC4 day!
The NEC Contracts board has announced that a new suite of NEC contracts known as "NEC4" will be made available on 22 June 2017. For those who are not sure what all the fuss is about, NEC is a family of construction contracts originally introduced in 1993 with the aims of providing a new approach, prioritising plain language and stimulating good project management. The contracts are widely used and aim to accommodate minor works all the way up to major framework agreements. The current edition, NEC3, which will be well-known to many readers, was launched in 2005 and last updated in 2013. NEC3 was the form of construction contract used for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, amongst other major projects.
The introduction of NEC4 aims to:
- bring the NEC contracts in line with current best practice and user and industry best practice learnings;
- support innovation through digital advances and encourage collaboration across the world;
- provide increased flexibility in each contract and NEC suite; and
- provide better value, greater certainty and improved delivery.
The NEC website provides an overview of the contracts that will be available from 22 June 2017 in the new NEC4 suite. We await their publication with interest.
As well as introducing NEC4 equivalents to the existing suite of contracts – notably the Engineering and Construction Contract and the associated Subcontracts – highlights of NEC4 will include two brand new contracts, namely a new Design, Build and Operate Contract (DBO) and a consultative Alliance Contract (ALC).
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The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.
